Apathymorphs: The Invasion
by JoeMerl
Summary: Book 1. Sometimes life is weird. Ask Jane. She was just walking home from the mall when a spaceship crashed right in front of her. Now she, Daria, Jodie, Quinn and Upchuck have the power to transform into animals—which they'll need to fight the aliens invading the planet! Unfortunately, for some of them the invasion has already struck close to home. COMPLETE.
1. Meetings

My name is Jane.

That's my first name, obviously. I can't tell you my last name. The Controllers are everywhere. Everywhere. And if they knew my full name, they could find me and my friends, and then…well, let's just say I don't want them to find me. I won't even tell you where I live. You'll just have to trust that it's a real place, a real town. Maybe even your town.

…Oh, what the hell. It's Lane, and I live in Lawndale, Maryland. It's not like I'm going to actually let anybody read this while the war is going on. Telling you my _species_ is too much of a giveaway.

My life used to be pretty normal—or at least, it could pass for "normal" in retrospect. The real weirdness began one Friday night when I was at the mall with my friend Daria. Neither of us are exactly "mall" people, but there was this cool new store that sold art supplies and I had dragged her there to help me shop. We were just hanging out, talking about the newest stupid report that we had seen on Sick, Sad World.

Though, going with retrospect again, the thread of our conversation seems strangely prophetic.

"I'm just saying that if there _were_ any aliens smart enough to come here they wouldn't be stupid enough to come _here._"

"There goes my trick ear again. What was that?" Daria asked as she hefted a bag of paint onto the checkout counter.

I placed my bags beside hers as the cashier began to price them. "Let's say I'm an alien and you're you."

"Part of this better be hypothetical."

"Now, why would _I,_ a highly advanced being from the planet Zippotron, travel light-years just to take over _your_ body and go to _high-school?_"

"Because Wednesday's Jell-o day?"

"Exactly. Wouldn't it—"

"Uh, excuse me?" the cashier said, looking annoyed at our conversation. "That'll be 73.10."

"Well, there goes the last of my birthday money…"

After we left the art store we decided to swing by Books By The Ton to pick up the reading assignment for English class. While there we happened to see Jodie, one of our saner schoolmates. She fell into step beside us as we began walking towards the exit.

"Hey. Picking up the Milton book for Mr. O'Neill's class?"

"Forsooth," Daria said.

"How far did he say we had to read by Monday?"

"The first part, I think. Speaking of which, when did Mr. DeMartino say that next essay was due?"

"Wednesday. You've already started, right?"

"Nah. But I've narrowed my topic down to 'something to do with history.' That's a start, right?"

Jodie gave me a disapproving stare. Jodie was one of the few kids from school who had half a brain, but she was all about trying to get the perfect GPA and cram as many activities as possible into her busy schedule. Daria was probably about as smart as her, but neither one of us was really that studious.

We stepped out into the mall parking lot, where we immediately saw a girl with her back to us stomping her foot, scoffing with impotent rage. Jodie pointed. "Daria, isn't that your sister?"

"Huh?" The girl spun around, startled. It was, indeed, Daria's younger sister, Quinn. "What are you doing here?"

"Paying for some horrible crime in a past life. You?"

"Waiting for my stupid ride to pick me up," she grumbled, pocketing her cell phone. "I have had the worst day ever. The Fashion Club was supposed to meet at Cashman's to discuss the new Spring colors, but Sandi and Tiffany just _ditched _me without calling for this stupid new club they're a part of, Stacy had to leave early and now none of the guys I'm dating this week will give me a ride home!"

Quinn, in case you can't tell, is pretty much the opposite of Daria: shallow, self-absorbed and not exactly bright. She's so perfectly pretty that it's almost as annoying as every word that comes out of her mouth, which are about as substantial as your average Val article.

"You could just walk," Jodie suggested, turning to Daria. "Your house isn't too far from here, right?"

"Uh, hello? Do these look like walking shoes to you?"

"I'm sure you'll survive," Daria said. "We can save time by cutting through the old construction site."

Quinn's eyes widened. "The one with all the serial killers and homeless people and stuff?"

"Don't forget the puppy kickers," I joked, enjoying the horror on Quinn's face.

"It'll be fine," Jodie said, rolling her eyes as she put a hand on Quinn's back and led her with us through the parking lot. "This is Lawndale. The worst we're liable to find is a couple of bums asking for change."

"And it'll be dark, so nobody will even notice that we're walking together," Daria added sarcastically.

"Fine," Quinn grumbled, but she didn't look convinced.

To get to our part of town from the mall you can either go a long way around, which is the safe way, or cut through this old construction site. It was a big area, surrounded by trees on two sides, with a street separating it from the mall. There's a broad, open field between it and the nearest houses. I think it was supposed to be a new shopping center, but after a while something stalled the construction. People kept saying it was going to start up again, but it had been dormant for more than a year by now.

As we headed for the highway we caught sight of another familiar face, which was beginning to become annoyingly common. "Why, hello there, ladies."

"Oh, no," Quinn groaned, and for once I could agree with her.

It was Upchuck. He's this guy in me and Daria's grade, and has the rare distinction of actually being less popular than we are. He doesn't seem to know it, though—in fact, he's pretty much the clingiest, smarmiest guy in existence. Think Urkel's personality transferred into the body of Howdy-Doody. But more annoying.

"You all weren't planning to cut through the construction site alone, were you?" he asked. He always spoke in this stupid tone of affected suaveness, like he was sure that any girl he talked to was already melting in his presence. "Because a gentleman like myself simply could not allow such fair damsels to take that risk…_unescorted._"

"Hmm…potential ax murderer, Upchuck. Potential ax murderer, Upchuck." I rubbed my chin, turning to Daria. "Tough choice, isn't it?"

"Hmm…no."

"Actually, I would feel kind of safer if he went with us," Jodie said.

We all stared at her. She leaned closer, lowering her voice. "Look, I'm just saying that if there are any crazed ax murderers in there, statistically, they're less likely to attack if they see a guy with us."

"Plus, potential human shield," I conceded.

"Alright, alright, fine!" Quinn snapped. "Let's just hurry up before somebody _sees_ us."

"_Rrrrr, feisty,_" Upchuck chuckled. "Ladies first." He bowed, motioning across the empty street. We rolled our eyes as we passed him.

Daria and I had used this way home before, but it was already dark now, which made the whole place seem even creepier than usual. It was totally deserted, full of half-finished building and a few pieces of old equipment that nobody had bothered to move. There were all sorts of shadowy corners and the occasional sound of a stray animal yowling. My sneakers hit beer cans and liquor bottles as I walked; once or twice we had even found the ashes of little campfires. The meager shelter attracted a lot of homeless people, I guess.

Admittedly, it was kind of a cool scene, sort of like a tiny, decrepit ghost town. Every time we passed through here I thought that I should come back during the day with my sketch pad and practice some doodles. But now I wanted to hurry up and get out of there. I wasn't at all confident that Upchuck could take a stray cat in a fight, let alone a serial killer.

You know, sometimes I think about that one, last moment when we were still just normal teenagers. Or what passes for normal, anyway. At that moment I was mostly thinking about how tired my arms were from carrying my bags of art supplies, and whether or not I could swing them around to beam a hypothetical serial killer (or Upchuck) in the head if it came to that.

Seriously, at that moment my biggest fear was just getting a chainsaw to the head. Five minutes later, that would seem downright tame in comparison.

It was Quinn who saw it first. She was hanging out at the back of the group, but walking uncomfortably close to Daria and me; I think her physical and social self-preservation instincts were warring with each other. She pointed at the sky, almost straight up. "What's _that?_"

We looked up. There was a brilliant blue-white light scooting across the sky. It went fast at first, too fast to be an airplane, then began to slow down. Upchuck was the first to stop walking.

"I…think it's just a meteorite," he said uncertainly.

"It looks more like a…"

"A what?" Daria asked, turning to me.

My mouth shut. What I had been about to say sounded like a joke, but all of a sudden I wasn't quite so sure.

The light stopped right above our heads. Then, it slowly started to descend toward us. And as it came closer, I realized that my aborted joke was right.

Daria gave an uncharacteristic gasp that came out almost like a hiccup. Quinn's eyes widened. But it was Jodie who actually said it.

"It's a—flying saucer."

"No way," Daria said, but her tone made it clear that she had been thinking the same thing.

I could feel my heart beating rapidly in my chest as the spaceship descended toward us.

"It's coming this way," Quinn said. Her voice quavered, and she took a shaky step back.

"I think you're right," Upchuck whispered. To my surprise he was actually smiling, and his tone sounded more awed than anything.

I stepped back a few paces, trying to get a better look at the spaceship. It was more egg- than saucer-shaped, with stubby wings and glowing blue shafts extending back. The weirdest feature was what looked sort of like a tail—it curved up and over the rest of the ship, pointing forward. It looked as sharp as a needle, giving the whole thing a weird, dangerous look.

The ship kept getting lower. It seemed to be giving off some sort of static electricity—I could feel my short hair standing up, and I almost laughed when I looked at the others—Daria, Quinn and Jane all had long hair that was hovering above their heads in every direction. Upchuck was the only one of us who looked slightly normal (_for a change, _I thought wryly).

"I think we should run," Quinn said, nervously trying to straighten her hair down. I realized that she was shaking. "What if that thing—tries to shoot us with its lasers or whatever?"

"It hasn't shot us yet," I murmured without thinking.

"But what makes us think it _won't?_"

"Does anyone have a camera?" Upchuck wondered. He began to chuckle. "I mean, this…this is _incredible!_ This is a real live alien spacecraft!"

"Are we sure?" I wondered.

Nobody answered. I took a deep breath. I wasn't sure what to think right now; I felt terrified and excited at the same time.

The ship came lower and lower, coming down near a jumble of half-finished walls about twenty feet from us. It was about the size of a school bus. I noticed more details—glistening chrome, but marred with huge patches of black, like burn marks. Dents that marred its otherwise perfect smoothness. Spots that looked like they had been melted.

"It looks kind of beat up," Jodie noted.

Daria nodded. "Yeah."

The ship touched the ground. Instantly all its lights turned off and I felt my hair fall back to my shoulders.

"We should call someone," Upchuck suggested. "Does anyone have a…cell phone…?"

He trailed off; none of us moved. We simply watched the ship, waiting for something to happen.

"Maybe there's nobody inside it," I suggested after a long moment. "Maybe it's like a, what do you call it—a drone."

"Maybe." Jodie looked at the rest of us. "Do you—think we should try to talk to it?"

"Do you think we _can?_"

"I only know enough Martian to ask where the bathroom is," Daria muttered.

"We have to try," Upchuck said.

Daria bit her lip, then nodded. "Yeah." She jerked her head at the ship. "So go say hello, Upchuck."

He jumped. "_What?_ Why me?"

"Because _you _said you were walking us through the construction site to protect us. So go on, Captain Muscle."

"But I—I didn't—_ohhh._"

I felt almost sorry for the guy as his awe turned to terror and then shoulder-slumping resignation. Though honestly, my pity was tempered by relief that I could probably run away while the Xenomorphs were still laying eggs in his stomach.

Upchuck swallowed and took a few steps toward the spaceship. He held out his hands and spread them, as if trying to show that he wasn't carrying any sort of weapon or anything.

"Um…hello, visitors from Mars!" It sounded like he was trying to use the same sycophantic tone he reserved for teachers, but his obvious nervousness ruined the already pitiful effect. "Welcome to planet Earth! Um…my name is Chuck Ruttheimer. We…come in peace?"

"Isn't that _their_ line?"

As if it heard me (maybe it did), a voice from the ship responded.

((I come in peace as well.))

We all jumped, especially Upchuck. Quinn looked around wildly, searching for the source of the sound. Except there _wasn't _a sound—just words, a disembodied voice echoing in my head.

"Did…everyone else hear that?" Daria asked slowly.

"I did," Jodie said.

"Me too," Quinn muttered meekly.

Upchuck smiled nervously. He took another step toward the ship. "Um…can you…come out of there?"

((Yes. Do not be frightened.))

Suddenly, a thin arch of light appeared in the side of the spaceship, then expanded inward to form a bright, glowing white space. We all took a collective step backwards. I realized I was shaking. I couldn't help it. I saw Quinn grab Daria's arm instinctively, while Jodie drew closer to the rest of us.

The alien appeared in the archway.

Have you ever seen one of those half-horse guys from Greek mythology? Picture that covered in short blue fur. It also had horns—or what I thought were horns, until I noticed that they were moving. They were actually stalks with eyes on the end, growing right out of the top of its head. It had two normal eyes too, which were a bright, sparkling green. When I looked closer I also noticed that it didn't have a nose or mouth, just three sort of slits running down from the bottom of its face.

The last detail that I noticed was the tail. It grew out of the horse part, but looked nothing like a horse's bundle of stingy hair. It was thick, arched over its back, like the "tail" on its spaceship. Near the end it had what looked like a scorpion's stinger, except it was more like a scythe made of bone or something.

The alien stepped shakily out of the spaceship, ducking its head as it came. It stared at us with all four eyes. Then, suddenly, it staggered and fell to the ground. We all jumped again—Upchuck ran forward, hesitated for a moment, then tried to help it back up. The alien stood steady for a second, but then its four legs collapsed again, and Upchuck nearly fell over with it.

Jodie ran over, and without thinking the rest of us followed. Quinn gasped, pointing to the alien's side. It was red and black and bleeding. "Look! I think he's hurt!"

((Yes. I am dying,)) the alien said. Its main eyes focused on Quinn, while the stalk eyes shifted to glance at each of us in turn.

"Dying?"

"I took a first aid class once," Jodie said quickly. She surveyed us each in turn. "Maybe if we make some kind of a bandage—" Her eyes rested on the red over-shirt I was wearing. "Jane, let me see that—"

((No. I will die. The wound is fatal. _UGH!_))

The alien let out a cry. We all staggered back—it wasn't just a voice that time, but something almost like physical pain, but muted, like an echo of his agony. For a second I couldn't breathe. I looked at Daria. "There's gotta be something we can do," she said. "Call a hospital or—"

((All you must do is listen, the alien said. There is…a grave threat facing your planet.))

"What do you mean?" Jodie asked.

((I am…not the only visitor to come to this world. I believe there are…many, many others. But we were not expecting so many, so soon…))

"What are you talking about?" Quinn sounded almost hysterical. "Other—other—aliens? Like you?"

((Not like me. They are different.))

"How?" I asked.

The alien gave me a dark look with his main eyes as the stalk eyes lowered.

((They have come to destroy you.))


	2. Yeerks

**Author's Notes:** This chapter is, by necessity, largely info-dumping and focused on _Animorphs_ events; the story gets more creative and _Daria-_centric as it goes on, I promise.

* * *

"Wha—what?" Upchuck said, his voice barely a squeak.

((They are called _Yeerks,_)) the alien said. ((I believe that many are here already. Thousands. Maybe more.))

"Really? I haven't noticed any little green men walking around," Daria said. I couldn't only just hear the quiver in her usual dry monotone.

((You do not understand. Yeerks live in the bodies of other species. They are…))

The alien trailed off, then closed his main eyes. Suddenly a picture seemed to flash into my head—something grayish-green and slimy, like a rat-sized slug with little flippers on the side.

"_Ewww!_" Quinn cried.

((They are parasites,)) the alien explained. ((They—_UGH!_)) Another blast of pain went through us; I saw the alien's chest rise and fall rapidly, the slits on his face expanding with effort. ((They live in the bodies of hosts. In this form they are known as Controllers. They enter the brain and connect to its neurons and synapses, taking over their minds and bodies.))

"Wait—you mean like _people?_" Jodie said in amazement. "There are aliens on Earth—living inside people's _brains?_"

"And they _control_ them?"

((We had hoped to stop them,)) the alien continued. His green eyes clouded. ((We Andalites knew that the Yeerks had sent scout ships to this planet, but when we arrived there was already a Pool ship in orbit, swarms of Bug fighters…and a Blade ship, hidden in a crater of your moon. We fought, but…we lost. Our Dome ship is destroyed, and most of our fighters…they have tracked me here. They will be here soon to eliminate all traces of me and my ship.))

"What? Pool ship…what are you talking about?"

((I have tried to send a message to my home world.)) I wasn't sure if the alien had even heard Daria speak. ((We fight the Yeerks wherever they go throughout the galaxy. My people may not know to send help, and even if they do, it will take a year or more to arrive. If the Yeerks can consolidate control before then…))

Another spasm of pain went through us. My mind was racing, but I didn't know how much time we had for questions, how much time did this…Andalite have left?

"This—this is crazy," Quinn said. "I mean—what do you want us to do?"

((You must warn your people.))

"But no one's going to believe us," Daria said. "I'm not sure if you realize, but we're just a bunch of teenagers. You've got you come with us."

"We have to try to help him, no matter what he says," Jodie said. She tried to lift the Andalite up, but to no avail. "We have to—call a hospital or something. Quinn, dial 911."

"Will they even know how to treat him?"

((There is no time, no time!)) the alien said. ((And any help you call may already be Controllers. The Yeerks will be here any moment.)) Suddenly he paused; his eyes brightened. ((But perhaps…))

Daria and I looked at each other nervously. "Perhaps what?"

((Go into my ship. You will see a small blue box, very plain. Bring it to me. Quickly! I have very little time, and the Yeerks will find me soon.))

We all looked at each other. Quinn immediately started shaking her head. I was going to suggest that Upchuck go, but Jodie took a deep breath and stood.

"I'll go," she said. She turned and walked toward the ship, marching as if afraid she would lose her nerve. She hesitated at the doorway for a moment, then disappeared inside.

We all waited in silence. The Andalite's breathing became raspier. To my surprise, Quinn bent down and carefully laid a hand on its narrow shoulder. His stalk eyes turned to her; she gave a smile so nervous it almost looked like a grimace.

Jodie emerged a moment later, walking slowly toward us. She was carrying a small, sky blue cube in her hands, about four inches on each side. She knelt down beside the alien again. "Here you go," she said quietly, passing it to him.

The alien took the cube from her; I noticed that his hand had too many fingers. ((Thank you.))

"What is that?" Upchuck asked.

((Something I may be able to use to help you fight the Yeerks.))

"_Fight?_" Daria said, eyes going wide behind her glasses. "Who said anything about fighting?"

((I know that you are young. I know that you have no power with which to resist the Controllers. But this is a piece of Andalite technology that the Yeerks do not have—the power to _morph._)) He turned to us solemnly. ((We have never shared this power. But your need is great.))

"Morph? What does _that_ mean?" Quinn asked.

((To change your bodies. To become any animal or species.))

"Become animals," Daria said. She sounded detached, even for her.

((You will only need to touch a creature, to acquire its DNA pattern into your body, and you will be able to _become_ that creature. It requires concentration and determination, and there are…limitations. Problems, dangers, even. But first, do you wish to receive this power?))

"He's kidding...right?"

"This is definitely weird," Jodie agreed, glancing around at the group. "But unless we're all just dreaming, I think we need to deal with this. Like, now."

"Maybe we _are_ just dreaming," I muttered.

"Uh…guys? What's that?" Upchuck asked, pointing back up at the sky. We all turned; two small, bright red lights were flashing far overhead.

The Andalite watched them with his stalk eyes, and I could feel the hatred in his tone. ((Yeerks.)) His main eyes focused on us. ((There is no more time. You must decide!))

"This is crazy!" Quinn suddenly screamed, startling me.

"I don't like this. I don't like this at all," Jodie muttered. Then she nodded. "But—alright."

Upchuck suddenly chuckled. Or forced out a sound sort of like a chuckle. "Heh. What's to be afraid of, right?"

"I…I don't know about this," Daria said nervously.

"Me neither," I said. I glanced back up at the sky; it might have been my imagination, but the lights looked larger, closer. "But I don't think we have a choice."

"This is crazy," Daria said stubbornly.

"Yeah, totally off the map crazy," I agreed. "But…what else can we do, _amiga?_"

She looked at me. Her expression was unreadable, which was actually pretty normal for her. "…Fine."

The Andalite held the box out to us. ((Each of you, press your hand against one side of the square.))

We each slowly did so, huddling together. Quinn was the last to join, looking around at each of us as if hoping for someone to help her out of this.

((Do not be afraid.))

A weird sensation went through my body, like a cross between being electrocuted and being tickled, if that makes sense. (I know it doesn't.) The Andalite withdrew the box.

((Go now,)) he said. ((Only remember this—never remain in morphed form for more than two of your Earth hours. If you stay longer than two hours you will be trapped, unable to return to your human form.))

"Just two hours?"

The Andalite was looking back up at the sky now; following his gaze, I noticed something new up there, a shadow larger than the other ships. ((The Abomination,)) the Andalite murmured.

"The what?"

((Visser Three. He is the most deadly of your new enemies. Run!

"But maybe we can help—" Jodie began.

The alien turned to her. ((No. You must save yourselves, and your planet. Now, hide, all of you! The Yeerks are here!))

He pointed; we all looked at each other and turned to race away. A blood-red spotlight suddenly fell on the fallen Andalite and his ship. Upchuck, at the back of the ground, was almost caught in the light, but managed to dive forward just in time to escape, crawling with the rest of us behind a half-finished wall. Peeking out, we could see the new spaceships descending, growing closer and closer.

Two of the ships were each shaped like a giant, legless cockroach. They touched down on either side of the Andalite's ship. The third ship was jet black, several times larger than the others, and shaped sort of like an ax or something. There was no space for it to land in the construction site, but as it descended half-finished buildings and construction equipment seemed to just disintegrated beneath it.

"Okay, I want to wake up now," Daria muttered. "Somebody wake me up. …Ow! Quinn!"

"Sorry. I was sort of hoping that would work."

A door on the dark ship opened. A dozen new figures began to step out.

Quinn started to scream, until Daria tackled her and forced her hand over her mouth.

These new aliens looked like a person had mated with a dinosaur, then stuck their baby full of knives. Each one was seven or eight feet tall, muscular, with long, snakelike necks and beaked heads that were topped with two or three curved horns. They had claws on their hands and feet and huge blades sticking out of their knees, their elbows, their long tails. Each one looked like it could kill somebody just by bumping into them.

((Hork-Bajir-Controllers,)) the Andalite said, making us jump. I glanced around the wall; apparently his telepathy could work from more than twenty feet away.

((Do not worry; I am directing my thought-speak only to you,)) the Andalite said. ((The Hork-Bajir were a peaceful people once. But their entire species has already been enslaved by the Yeerks.))

"Yeah. I look at those things, 'peaceful' is definitely the first word to come to mind," Daria muttered.

After the Hork-Bajir, a new group of aliens began to slither out of the ship. Each one looked like a massive, ten-foot-long centipede as thick as a tree trunk. The lower two-thirds of their body crawled on the ground with dozens of spindly legs; the rest was reared upright and had rows of small lobster claws. Each one had a massive mouth filled with teeth on top of their tubular bodies, as well as four wiggling red eyes.

((Taxxon-Controllers,)) the Andalite explained. ((The Taxxons were…less peaceful than the Hork-Bajir.))

"Wonderful," I muttered.

The Hork-Bajir and Taxxons formed a circle around the Andalite ship. Each one carried what looked like ray guns in their clawlike hands.

One Hork-Bajir came right up to us. I gasped, knowing we were about to be discovered, but instead it turned on the other side of the wall, joining a circle with the rest of its ugly compatriots.

To be perfectly honest, I felt just about ready to wet myself.

A new figure began to emerge from the black spaceship. I turned, wondering what new nightmare we were in for now.

I was shocked when I saw it.

((The Abomination. Visser Three, the Andalite said, his mental voice dripping with hate.

Quinn peeked out nervously. "What the…but isn't that—the same kind of alien he is?"

"Another Andalite," Jodie whispered.

((There is only one Andalite-Controller. That one is Visser Three.))

Visser Three walked confidently toward the wounded Andalite. I stared from one to the other, fascinated. Visser Three seemed bigger—though maybe just because the other Andalite was crumpled on the ground. His fur was a darker blue. But they both had the same centaur body, the same weird stalks, the same scorpion tail. But you could just tell that there was something messed up about this Visser Three guy. Maybe it was the way that he walked, or the way that he glared down at the Andalite, or the way that he smiled. I'm not sure _how_ he was smiling without a mouth, but it was obvious—his whole face was awash with pure sadistic pleasure.

((Well, well. What have we here?)) The mental voice was like ice water poured down my shirt. ((Ah, but no ordinary Andalite warrior! If it isn't my old rival, Prince Elfangor-Sirinial-Shamtul. An honor to meet you again. How many of our fighters have you shredded? Seven, or was it eight by the time the battle ended?))

The Andalite only glared.

((I'm afraid your Dome ship has been completely destroyed. _Completely,_)) Visser Three continued. ((I watched it burn as it fell into the atmosphere of this little world.))

The Andalite glared harder. Then, to my amazement, he climbed to his feet. His four legs shook, I thought for sure he was going to fall again, but he managed to stand and glare down the new alien.

((There will be others,)) Prince Elfangor said. Then, ((What do you want with these humans? Why these people?))

Visser Three took a defiant step forward. His bladed tail suddenly snapped like the crack of a whip. ((Because there are so many, and _they are so WEAK,_)) he sneered. ((Billions of bodies! We'll have to build a thousand new Yeerk pools just to raise Yeerks for half this number of hosts. And they have no idea what's happening. With this many hosts we can spread throughout the universe, unstoppable!))

He leaned in closer to Enfangor. I found myself leaning closer as well, breath caught in my throat, watching the mad, malicious look in his eyes. ((And when we have this planet, with its rich harvest of bodies, we will move against the Andalite home world. And I promise to personally hunt down your family and oversee the placement of my most faithful lieutenants in their heads.)) He leaned in even closer, tail twitching. ((I hope that they will resist, so that I can hear their minds _scream._))

Suddenly, the Andalite struck! His tail whipped forward, so fast that I could barely see it, and slashed at Visser Three's neck. He dove out of the way just in time, but the scorpion stinger drew dark blood from his shoulder. At the same moment the tail of the Andalite's ship suddenly lit up, and a sudden blast of light—so hot that I could feel it on my face even from my hiding spot—shot out, blasting the nearest cockroach-ship into flames and sending the other aliens scattering.

Visser Three screamed in my head. I felt the others draw closer. "Maybe he has a chance after all!" Upchuck cried excitedly.

But he was instantly proved wrong. The Andalite only seemed to have enough strength for that one attack—instantly he collapsed and the Hork-Bajir were on him, grabbing his arms and tail. ((FIRE!)) Visser Three roared. ((Burn his ship!))

The Taxxons slithered forward and began to fire with their ray guns; the construction site was awash in red light, and the Andalite's ship began to melt and disintegrate before our eyes.

Daria suddenly grabbed my arm. "Look at the—the evil Andalite. Visser Three or whatever," she whispered.

"What the hell is happening to him?" Quinn gasped.

"I think he's…" Upchuck swallowed. "Morphing."

"Into what?"

Visser Three's Andalite head grew larger and larger. His four hoofed legs seemed to melt, then merge into two, then grow huge. A sudden gash appeared on his face, opening into a mouth filled with giant teeth. His arms turned into tentacles. He grew. A lot.

He looked like some kind of monster from a bad horror movie. Except a real monster from a bad horror movie, muscles rippling as it reared up taller than the unfinished buildings around us. It threw back its head and roared.

I'll admit—I heard myself whimper. Quinn was covering her face. Daria's eyes were wide with horrified fascination. Jodie was saying something, but I couldn't hear what.

"RAAAAGGGGHHHH!"

Visser Three's tentacle reached down and grabbed the Andalite from the Hork-Bajir's grasp. Prince Elfangor struck at him with his tail blade, but the monster hardly seemed to notice.

"Oh G-d. Oh G-d. Oh G-d," Quinn gasped.

Visser Three opened his mouth wide and threw Prince Elfangor in.

He screamed, like a blast of pain and terror in my brain. I suddenly heard Quinn start crying. Despite myself I looked away and let out a small choking sound.

Visser Three began shrinking, his monster body melting back into alien-centaur form. ((Ah. Nothing like a good Antarean Bogg morph to…_take a bite _out of your enemies.))

I might have rolled my eyes at the corny joke, if it weren't for the fact that I was trying not to faint. The Hork-Bajir-Controllers made a sound that I think was laughter. The Taxxons merely hissed and swarmed around the changing Visser-monster. A chunk of meat fell from the creature's giant maw as he changed back—the Taxxons immediately fell forward, fighting each other for a chance to gobble it up.

Suddenly, Upchuck bent over and started to live out his nickname. I wish I could blame him for that, but I felt about ready to hurl myself. Still, the sound caught the attention of the nearest Hork-Bajir. Its snakelike head suddenly whipped around and peered down over the wall at us. Its beady eyes blinked in the darkness.

Immediately, we all screamed.

"_RUN!_"

We ran. The Hork-Bajir let out a cry to the rest of its companions.

"SPLIT UP!" Jodie screamed. "They can't follow all of us!"

We scattered in five different directions. The Hork-Bajir hesitated; my brain worked wildly. Quinn is on the short side, Upchuck is totally out of shape, and Daria is both. Jodie seemed pretty fast, but I run a lot—in fact I used to be on the school track team. So I figured that if the aliens were going to chase anyone, it might as well be me.

"HEY!" I stopped and spun around, waving my arms. "E.T.! Why don't you try to catch me, ya _Star Trek_ rejects!"

I don't know if the aliens understood me, but they began the chase. I turned and sprinted away, ducking behind any building I could find.

I tried to lose the Hork-Bajir, but they managed to stay on me—for all I knew they could track me by smell or with psychic powers or something. I turned another corner and ducked into one of the half-finished buildings, putting my back against the wall and trying to shuffle into the darkness. I clamped my hand over my mouth, refusing to breathe.

I heard the Hork-Bajir prowling outside. The beam of a flashlight flashed in through the empty doorway.

I heard a guttural, alien voice speak in a language that I couldn't understand. I was shocked to hear a response in perfect English.

"No-no, no need to capture them! Whoever you find, _kill._"

That voice…it was human, I realized. And familiar. But who—I couldn't concentrate, I couldn't think straight with all the adrenaline coursing through my system and my heart hammering in my chest and the blood rushing to my ears. All I could manage to wrap my head around was that the voice was familiar and belonged to a woman.

"Oh, forget it," the human said, sounding irritated. "I think the little brat went over this way…"

The flashlight beam vanished; I heard the Hork-Bajir walking away. For several long minutes I remained frozen, straining my ears for any tiny sound. Then, taking a deep breath, I moved to the doorway and peered outside again.

Nobody there. No humans, no Hork-Bajir, no anyone. But I could still hear them prowling in another part of the construction site.

I ducked out of the building and ran, and didn't stop running until I made it back home.


	3. Morphing

I burst through my front door, then slammed, locked and collapsed against it in about two seconds. My heart was racing; I half-expected some new alien monster to burst through the window at any moment.

"Janie?"

"_Agh!_"

My older brother Trent stuck his head out from the kitchen, making me jump so high I almost hit the ceiling. His eyes widened slightly.

"Whoa. Everything okay? You seem…_jumpy._"

"Oh…no, I'm fine. Just—took a bit too long of a jog," I lied, trying to calm my gasping breath. I hadn't been expecting him to be home on a Friday night; normally he would have been at a gig with his band, Mystik Spiral. "I—gotta go call Daria, okay?"

He didn't answer as I ran upstairs, locking my door to put some more meager protection between me and the alien invaders. My hands were shaking so hard I could barely dial Daria's number, and each ring felt like an eternity of waiting.

_Riiing…riiing…rii-click!_

"Hello?" a cheery voice said.

"Mrs. Morgendorffer! Um, hi. Is Daria there?"

"No, I'm sorry, she's not in right now."

I felt my stomach churn. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. "Okay. Um—can you tell her to call me when she gets in?"

"I'll give her the message."

"Thanks."

I hung up and spent the next five minutes frantically pacing my room. I practically dove for the phone when it finally rang. "Hello?"

"Jane?"

"Daria! Oh, thank God. Are you alright?"

"Yeah. Quinn and I managed to get away—somehow." She sounded shaky. "Jodie and Upchuck are alright too. She's been calling everybody nonstop, but she didn't have your number."

"Okay, good. I—wait, but she had _Upchuck's?_"

"That's what _I_ said." The edge in Daria's voice softened slightly. "I think the phonebook just has more 'Lanes' than 'Ruttheimers.'"

"Oh yeah."

There was a pause. "Jane?"

"Yeah?"

"_Please_ tell me that was all a dream."

To my own surprise, I started laughing. Or at least making a nervous tittering sound that sort of resembled laughter. "Yeah. Definitely. We'll both wake up tomorrow and it'll be like none of this ever happened."

"Good." She hesitated. "Quinn's already…"

"Already what?"

"Nothing. Talk to you tomorrow."

"Yeah. Goodnight, _amiga._"

* * *

I guess I should have had some major nightmares, but I actually slept pretty well, all things considering. I woke up early, however, which is in _no _way common for me on a Saturday. I tossed and turned for a while, then finally gave in and dragged myself out of bed, heading for the kitchen and its blessed supply of coffee—to my surprise, I could already smell it halfway down the stairs.

I made my way into the kitchen to find my brother already up and dressed, leaning on the counter as he sipped his mug. I rubbed my eyes to make sure I wasn't seeing things. "Trent? What are you doing up so early?"

He quirked an eyebrow. "I dunno. What are _you_ doing up, Janie?"

I shrugged, dragging myself over to the coffee pot. "I dunno. Couldn't sleep. But you never wake up after a—oh, yeah, you didn't have a gig last night."

"Nah." He poured the last few dregs of his coffee into the sink, then jangled his keys as he headed out. "Anyway, I got stuff to do. I'll be back sometime this afternoon."

"You're leaving this early?" I glanced at the wall clock; it was barely after nine. "What kind of stuff?"

I heard the front door open. "Work stuff," he called back. "See ya."

I heard the door close. I raised an eyebrow, then shrugged. Mystik Spiral sometimes kept weird hours, since Trent and his friends were more prone to staying up all night then trying to wake up in the morning.

I sat at the table to drink my coffee. I was trying to wake myself up, but _also _trying to block out the thoughts that waking up was reminding me of—the way the Andalite had screamed when Visser Three ate him, or the way my heart had hammered when the Hork-Bajir chased me around the construction site. Honestly, I was trying to convince myself that it had been a dream, but I couldn't quite manage it. I had had some pretty weird dreams before, but this was a far cry from going to school in pink taffeta or Kevin Thompson being crowned queen of the leprechauns. This one was too weird…but also too coherent. And too vivid.

"_Meeoow._"

I felt something furry rub against my leg. I bent down, lifting one of my cats from the floor and into my lap. "Hey there, Taylor." My voice came out in a whisper, even though I hadn't intended it to. "How are you this morning?"

He purred and let me stroke his back, rubbing his head into my shirt. I closed my eyes and tried to let my mind wander…don't focus on your nightmare, I told myself, just focus on Taylor's coarse fur and his warm back…the way he purrs when you scratch him behind the ear…

Suddenly I began to feel…strange. I froze with my hand on Taylor's back. He had grown very quiet; I wondered if he might be sleeping. My mind went back to what the Andalite had said the previous night…the image of Visser Three growing body flashed into my mind.

I slowly picked up and Taylor and set him back on the linoleum; he remained totally still for a moment, but then seemed to wake up and slink out of the room. I hesitated, glancing at the doorway just to make sure Trent wasn't about to come back for his keys or something.

I felt very stupid for even thinking this. But maybe…

* * *

_Knock knock knock._ "Daria?"

I heard a moan inside her room. I knocked again. "Daria? It's me, Jane!"

"Wha—Jane?" I heard some shuffling before the door opened. Daria looked like she had just woken up—she wasn't even wearing her glasses, but her ruffled clothes were the same from the night before; she was even still wearing her boots. "What are you doing here?"

"Your dad let me in. Come on, I—need to talk to you about something."

She moved aside to let me in, then closed her bedroom door door. I looked around the room nervously. It looked the same as it always did—padded walls, messy—but it looked weird to me now. In the last hour _everything_ suddenly felt different than ever before.

Daria stumbled over to her dresser and put on her glasses, running a hand through her hair. "To what do I owe this intrusion?"

I took a deep breath, giving her a look. "I did it," I said.

"…Really? I thought you were waiting for moving day at college."

"No—not that _it._ I mean I—I _turned into Taylor_ an hour ago!"

Daria froze. "…Taylor?" she said slowly. "You mean your _cat_ Taylor?"

"Yeah." She stared at me. "I know it sounds crazy," I added quickly. "But—I was just petting him, you know, and I—I don't know, I just remembered what the Andalite said, and I just—decided to see if it would work. And _it did,_ Daria—the next thing I knew I was shrinking, and I—started growing fur, and—"

Daria held up her hands. "_No._ I refuse to believe that my best friend is Catwoman."

"Catwoman can't turn into a cat. I…don't think, anyway. But I swear this actually happened! Don't you remember last night?"

"I remember—things," Daria admitted, her eyes darting away. "But those things could have been a dream. Things _that_ weird don't actually happen in real life."

I crossed my arms. "Oh, really? Then what about that time those runaway holidays were—OW!"

The heel of Daria's boot slammed down onto my toe. I yelped, jumping back. "We swore to _never mention that again,_" she said.

I held up my hands. "Okay, okay. But I can _prove_ this is real."

"How?"

"Watch."

I took a step back and closed my eyes. I hoped that it would work again—to be honest I wasn't entirely sure how I did it the first time. I pictured Taylor in my mind and pushed at the thought, trying to force it onto my body.

My whole body felt itchy. I felt my face—it was suddenly covered in hair.

"_Agh!_"

Daria stumbled back and fell onto her bed, and at the moment I felt like I was falling too—the ground was racing up at me, even though my feet stayed planted on the floor. My clothes were getting baggy, and suddenly my hands felt like they were melting, only for my fingers to merge together and re-solidify as paws. The whole thing didn't hurt, but it was terrifying—my heart was pounding, I could feel my organs and bones shifting inside me, but I forced myself to keep changing, keep going as I felt whiskers spout under my nose and my spine grow longer and longer as a tail grew right out of my butt.

I fell on all fours. My clothes were like huge circus tents—I slithered my way out of them as the last few changes took effect.

I looked up at Daria. She looked down at me. She and her bed were _huge._ I had thought that cats were colorblind, but that didn't seem quite true—I could see some colors, but they all seemed fainter and grayer than usual.

"I hope that I'm still asleep," Daria moaned. Her voice seemed much louder than usual—in fact _everything_ did, from my steps on the carpet to the sounds of her family moving around in the rest of the house. "I really do."

I wanted to laugh. ((Sorry, Daria. No such luck,)) I thought.

She jumped. "What the—is that you?"

((You can hear me? Huh.))

"Yeah. Just like the—Andalite."

She paused, then screwed up her face. I quirked an eyebrow—or would have, if I still had any.

((What are you doing?))

"Seeing if you can read my mind too."

((Um…I don't think so. I guess it only works when you're…_morphed,_ or something.)) Suddenly I was distracted by something. I tried to make a face. ((Your room smells.))

"Uh, thanks?"

((No, it's just—at lot more noticeable.)) I sniffed. The whole room smelled like Daria, even though I had never really noticed Daria having any particular smell before. I could detect other smells too, some familiar and some that seemed totally new—I began to prowl around the room, nose to the carpet, then paused at her dresser. I gazed up at it; it seemed as tall as an apartment building.

A thought occurred. ((Hey, watch this.))

"What?"

I backed up a few steps and leapt! I soared through the air and landed on top of the dresser. ((Ha, did you see that! That was like, five feet!)) I exclaimed. ((That's like jumping over a house in human feet.))

"Um…congratulations?"

((Sorry, it just feels so incredible. Like diving off a high-dive in reverse. And—hey! What's this?))

I began to swat at one of the weird sculptures she kept on her dresser. I extended my claws and began to scratch at it. Daria crossed the room over to me. "You do remember that _you_ made me that, right?"

((What? Oh, yeah, I did, didn't I?)) I scratched again; it felt good on my claws. Remind me later to make myself a scratching post.

Suddenly Daria picked me up. ((_Hey!_)) I cried as she set me back down on the floor. ((What are you doing?))

"What am _I_ doing? What are _you_ doing? You do remember you're not actually a cat, right?"

((Um…yeah.)) I suddenly realized how weird I had been acting; I gave a silent, nervous chuckle. ((I guess it's just kind of hard to think with all these cat senses.))

"Well, change back, then. I don't want you marking your territory on my bed or something."

((Yeah, alright. Let's just see if I remember how to do this…))

I closed my eyes again and pictured my normal face. My body began to expand—striped hair seemed to retract into my skin, which was resuming its usual pale pinkish color. Paws gave way to fingers, claws melting into nails.

I was a half-cat, half-human monstrosity crouched on the bedroom floor when a problem became apparent: Daria had forgotten to lock her door.

It flew open. "Daria, Mom said she _somehow_ mixed my new sweater into your laundry, and I need it for—_AAAGGGHHH!_"

Quinn screamed. I covered my ears—which were even now shifting and moving down my head—as I heard a voice call from the other room. "Quinn?"

Footsteps approached; Quinn was standing frozen in the doorway as Daria and I looked around wildly. "_Get in the closet!_" she hissed, and before I could answer she grabbed me by my still-furry wrist and pulled me to my feet (nearly tripping me as my knees suddenly reversed directions). She pushed me in and slammed the door, leaving me in the dark amidst her hanging shirts and jackets.

I heard Daria's mom enter the room. "What's going on in here? I heard a scream—"

I took a deep breath, closed my eyes and forced myself to keep morphing; I felt my tail retract as more fur seemed to disappear. Better Mrs. Morgendorffer catch Daria with a naked girl in her closet than a naked half-cat mutant, right?

Quinn was stuttering wildly. Daria, however, managed to speak evenly. "It was a cockroach. Don't worry—I got it."

"Oh, dear. I hope we won't need to call an exterminator. Hmm…I thought your father said that Jane was up here?"

"She's just—in the bathroom."

"Oh, alright."

I heard Daria's mom walk away just as the last of my fur disappeared. I heard the bedroom door close and lock before Daria came out and opened the closet for me. I stumbled out, then glanced down at my body in the newfound light.

Human. I sighed with relief. Then, somewhat sheepishly, gathered my clothes up from Daria's floor and began to dress.

"A naked Jane hiding in my closet. The jokes just write themselves."

Quinn, however, was still gaping, pointing a shaking finger at me as I pulled my clothes on. "What—what was that?"

"That was Jane…_morphing,_" Daria mumbled, rubbing the bridge of her nose. "Apparently, she's a catgirl now."

"I—no. _No! _That was just a dream! It wasn't real!"

"It was real, alright," I muttered.

Silence fell over the room. Daria looked away, thoughtful. Quinn just kept shaking her head.

It suddenly seemed to sink in how crazy this was, that this was not actually some sort of dream that I was about to wake up from. I had just turned into a cat, twice in about an hour. And according to the Andalite, I was supposed to use this newfound feline powers to help save the planet from evil slug monsters.

"What do we do now?" I wondered.

It was a long moment before Daria answered. "Well, we weren't the only ones at the construction site. I guess we call Jodie and Upchuck. Meet up with them and see what they say."

"I can't," Quinn said immediately. "Not today. I have to go shopping with the Fashion Club in an hour, _and_ I have a date with Adam tonight."

Daria and I both stared. "Quinn, an alien gave us magical powers, and then got eaten by an alien T-Rex. I think this is a _little_ more important than whether or not mauve is the new eggplant."

"Well, maybe for you, it is! But _I_ have commitments!"

"Well, _we_ have a life-or-death situation going on! This is serious!"

"Well, so is—I mean—" Quinn quickly looked away, then shot an angry look back at us. "Fine! I'll cancel on Sandi." She paused, tapping her chin. "Maybe I can tell her I'm with some cute guy I met waiting for her at the mall yesterday…that'll get her back for ditching me."

She left. Daria and I exchanged a look. "Well, good to know that she's putting her keen tactile skills to good use."

"Seriously." I sighed; I suddenly felt exhausted. "So, we talk to the others?"

"Yeah. I'll call Jodie."


	4. Suspicions

Jodie was apparently in the same room as her parents when Daria called, so all she could really do was agree to meet with us later. She offered to call Upchuck for us; the plan was to meet at my house, since it was the one most likely to be empty on a Saturday.

Daria and I dragged Quinn there around lunch time. Jodie showed up a little while later, brandishing a newspaper. "Did you guys read today's _Lawndale Sun-Herald?_" she asked immediately.

"Um—no?"

"Well, take a look at this—here, the little article in the corner."

Daria took the paper. "'Fireworks, not UFO, say police,'" she read.

"Yeah. Apparently a lot of people around the mall reported seeing some weird lights last night. But according to _this,_ police showed up to investigate and only found some kids playing with fireworks. And there's a reward for anyone who turns the kids in," she added darkly.

Daria and I took a minute to let that sink in. Quinn looked confused. "But…wait. So the police showed up after we left?"

"No—the police are _lying,_" Daria said, folding the paper up and throwing it on my kitchen table. "Don't you get it? This is the aliens—the Yeerks or Controllers or whatever they're called—looking for _us._"

"Wait—the _police_ are aliens too?"

"Or the newspaper," Jodie said. "Or both. I mean—the Andalite made it sound like they could be _anyone._"

"Oh man," I mumbled. "_That's_ scary to think about."

"Yeah." Jodie gave me an odd look. "So, you really did it? Turned into an animal?"

"My pet cat."

"It was _horrible!_" Quinn shuddered.

"Actually, it was kind of cool. But still sort of freaky."

"Crazy."

"I can't believe I'm saying this, but we need Upchuck," Daria said, glancing at her watch. "Where is he?"

Suddenly I heard a tapping sound. It took us all a moment to locate its source—a large, white-and-gray bird was hovering outside my kitchen window, flapping its wings to stay aloft as it tapped on the glass with its beak. We all glanced at each other before I approached.

Good, they see me! Now…how do I make them figure out who I am?

"_Upchuck?_" Jodie's jaw nearly fell to the floor.

…Oh. That was easier than I thought.

"Yeah. We can hear what you're thinking in morph. It's this whole big thing." I opened the window. "Get in here, birdbrain."

He swept into the room and landed on the back of Quinn's chair. She let out a cry and darted into another one.

Ha, this is incredible! I _flew_ here! Do you know what it's like to _fly_ over Lawndale? To ride on a thermal? And these eyes! It's like having a pair of binoculars attached to my face!

"Been peeking into people's houses, I gather?"

What? No! _Although…_

"We can still hear you."

Oh.

"Okay, a bird is talking to me. Psychically. This is too weird," Jodie said. "Change back now, okay?"

Upchuck hid his head under his wing. Um…I can't.

"What do you mean? Oh, no—don't tell me you've been like that for more than two hours?"

What? No. It's just…my clothes didn't morph with me. And I, uh, wouldn't want to _blind_ you lovely ladies with so much unrestrained virility all at once, he added hastily.

"More likely we'd turn to stone."

I sighed. "Come here…"

Luckily Trent had actually been keeping up with his laundry lately—I found a pair of clothes for Upchuck to wear in my dryer and left him alone in my basement to change. He came out a minute later wearing an oversized T-shirt and pants that he had to hold to keep from falling.

"You know, you could have just driven here," Jodie noted as he sat down. "This morphing thing isn't a toy. We'd be in big trouble if somebody caught you doing that."

Upchuck shrugged. "Car's in the shop. Besides, you can't expect a man with superpowers to not take advantage of them! Captain Muscle never walked to work, did he?"

He grinned and kicked his bare feet up on the kitchen table. Then he caught sight of my face and quickly removed them.

"What kind of bird was that, anyway?" Daria wondered.

He shrugged. "An osprey, I think. I live right on the edge of the woods, so I just snuck in there this morning and decided to try this morphing thing on the first sleeping bird I could find." He suddenly frowned, staring down at his forearm. "It woke up and gave me quite a few scratches, though."

"I don't see any scratches," Jodie noted.

"Yeah. I…guess the morphing fixed that."

I frowned. "Huh. You know…I think the same thing happened to me."

"It did?"

"Yeah. Haven't any of you noticed a change from my usual style?"

I swept my hair behind one ear. Daria blinked. "You're not wearing your earrings?"

"Yeah. When I was getting dressed—after I first morphed Taylor—I tried to put on my earrings, but the holes were just gone. Sound familiar?"

Daria rolled her eyes. She had had a less supernatural version of that problem once. She looked thoughtful. "Well, the Andalite said the technology was based on DNA."

Quinn frowned. "You mean that stuff in your blood that they're always talking about on the police shows?"

"Exactly." Another grin grew on Upchuck's face. "We absorb the DNA from animals, and then use our own DNA to turn back. But something like a scratch or a piercing isn't encoded in your DNA. Which means that morphing is effectively a _healing_ power too! That ought to be useful in a fight."

"We didn't say anything about fighting!" Quinn said quickly.

"And that's what we're here to talk about," Jodie said. She pushed the newspaper to Upchuck. "Did you read this by any chance?"

His smile faltered. "Actually, yes. And do your ladies know what it means?"

"That these Yeerks are onto us, yeah." She crossed her arms and peered around at the rest of us. "So what are we gonna do about it?"

"I say we don't do anything," Quinn said immediately. We all turned to look at her. "What? You saw what happened to that Elf-Finger guy! We can't let the Yeerks find us! We have to, like, tell the police or the army or something!"

"But it looks like the police are already Controllers," Daria said. "Who's to say the army isn't?"

"Probably not all of them." I suddenly felt a chill. "I mean, the Yeerks can't already be in _everyone_ important, can they?"

"Probably not," Upchuck said slowly. "But how do we tell who _is_ a Controller and who _isn't?_"

"Especially when telling the wrong person could get slugs put in our brains too?"

Nobody had a good answer for that. There was a long pause.

"The Andalite said we needed to fight the Yeerks," Jodie said quietly.

"But that's crazy!"

"As much as it goes against everything I stand for, I have to agree with Quinn here," Daria said. "If we don't even know who's a Controller and who isn't, where do we even _start?_"

"And what do we do if we run into that Visser Three guy and he goes all Godzilla again?" I wondered.

"I know, but—_ugh,_ I don't know." Jodie put her face in her hand; I suddenly noticed that she looked exhausted. "I just keep thinking back to last night. When the Andalite…you know."

"It was horrible," Quinn said quietly, slumping in her seat.

I felt cold again. The image of the alien falling into Visser Three's mouth flashed before my eyes. "Yeah."

"And the last thing he did—was try to give us something to help us," Jodie continued. "And, like—remember when I went on his ship, to get the…morphing box or whatever?"

"Yeah?"

"Well, he had a—thing in there. I guess you call it a hologram or something? A little one, of a bunch of different Andalites. And I…I don't know, I guess it was his family or something. Like the picture of your kids that you keep on your desk at work. And…it's just really terrible to think about. He died trying to save _our_ planet, and those other Andalites are a million miles away right now. They probably don't even know that he's dead."

The room was silent for a moment before Quinn spoke. "Well, I don't know about you, but _I_ don't want to end up dead, too."

We all looked away from each other. I suddenly started imagining my parents, currently off taking photographs in some foreign country—how would they react if they suddenly got a call from Trent telling them that I had been ripped to shreds in a fight with an alien? Hell, how would Trent react, or my other brother and sisters? Would they even know if I _did_ die, or would I just wind up joining the Andalite in Visser Three's large intestine?

Jodie took a deep breath. "So—where do we all stand?"

"I say this whole thing is crazy," Quinn said. "If we try to fight these Yeerk things, all we're going to do is get ourselves killed."

"I agree with Quinn…sort of," Daria said reluctantly. "We can't just do nothing, but this whole idea that we'll turn into lions and tigers and bears and go beat up the Wicked Witch? Not happening. I think we need to figure out a way that we can find somebody and pass the information along to them."

"I would agree, except I don't know how we could," Jodie admitted. "I mean, the five of us are the only people that we _know_ can't be Controllers."

"_Do_ we know that?" Quinn asked. She suddenly looked around at the rest of us like we were ninjas poised for the attack.

I rolled my eyes. "If one of us was a Yeerk, they would have attacked the Andalite with one of those laser guns and turned the rest of us in by now. …At least, I think they would have." Okay, now _I_ was starting to feel paranoid.

"I think it's safe to say that we're all clean," Jodie said. "But I don't know how we can say for sure than anyone else is. I mean…the Yeerks could even have one of our parents or something. It would be impossible to know."

"But wouldn't they be acting weird?" I wondered.

"There's always a tell in the movies," Upchuck said hopefully.

"Well, what do you think, then?" Jodie asked.

"Me?" Upchuck raised an eyebrow as though surprised to see us all staring at him. He quickly recovered and cleared his throat. "I, uh…don't really know," he admitted. His eyes darted away. "I mean—well, don't get me wrong, flying here was _quite_ the thrill…definitely not complaining about the morphing thing. But, well…"

"You're as afraid of imminent death as the rest of us?" Daria cut in.

"…Something like that, yeah." He looked almost embarrassed to admit it. "But Jodie's right—it might not be possible to find anybody to help us. And if there isn't…"

"We may not have any choice but to fight ourselves."

"Yeah."

Jodie turned to me. "What about you, Jane?"

I tensed up, feeling like a deer caught in headlights. The unpleasant image of my family gathered around a coffin flashed through my mind again.

"…I dunno," I admitted. "I can barely even believe that this is real…I guess it's like you guys said: we try to find somebody else and then take it from there."

"But who?" Daria wondered. "Who do we know who we're absolutely sure would—be a good person to do our report on?" she said, her voice changing abruptly mid-sentence.

I raised my eyebrow. "Huh?"

"Hey."

I jumped. Trent was standing in the doorway behind me, holding a Pizza Prince box in his hands. His eyes widened slightly.

"_Whoa,_ Janie. You've really been jumpy the last couple of days. Maybe we should switch to decaf." He nodded to the other inhabitants of the table. "Hey, Daria, Daria's Sister…other people."

"Oh, uh—Jodie, Upchuck, this is my brother Trent."

"Pleased to meet you."

"A pleasure, my good man."

Trent simply nodded again. He motioned to the pizza box in his hands. "I picked up lunch on the way home…but I wasn't really expecting this much company."

"That's okay," Quinn said quickly, jumping to her feet. "I was just leaving anyway."

"What?" I said. "But we didn't even—"

"Actually, I sort of have to go too," Jodie said, picking up her newspaper and rising. "This is a big…project," she said, responding to our stunned stares. "I don't think we can get this all done at once—we should take a day or two to brainstorm ideas before we decide."

"Well, I guess we weren't really making any progress anyway," Daria muttered, shoulders slumping.

"Let me walk you two lovely ladies to the door," Upchuck offered, following them out of the kitchen.

"Hey, you." Upchuck froze as Trent gave him a quick look up and down. "…Nice shirt."

Upchuck gave an oily smile. "You too, my stylish associate." Then he darted out of the room after Quinn and Jodie, the front door closing behind them.

Daria and I shared a nervous look as Trent casually placed the pizza on the kitchen table and sat backwards in Upchuck's empty seat. "So, what are you guys doing?"

"School project," I said, trying not to seem shaky as I took a piece of pizza. "We have to do a group report about…a U.S. president," I invented.

"Ah." He chewed his pizza thoughtfully before turning to Daria. "But…isn't your sister in a different grade than you?"

"We're actually very close in age," Daria said. She managed to keep her voice sounding as even and ambiguously sarcastic as it normally was. "So, what have _you_ been up to? Aren't you accustomed to getting up when you hear owls crowing outside your window?"

Trent chuckled. "Nah. I had work stuff to do today."

"Work? You mean the band?"

"Nah." He finished off his first piece of pizza, popping the last bit of crust into his mouth before continuing. "I quit the band."

"What?" My voice squeaked; I had to cough a few times to keep from choking on my pizza. "You quit Mystik Spiral? When did that happen?"

"A couple of days ago. Didn't I tell you?"

"No!"

"Oh. Huh." He took a second slice of pizza and ate about half as it as I just stared at him. Daria was staring too, with a strange look on his face. Finally Trent rolled his eyes. "Look, I have more important things to do than strum the strings of a guitar all day, you know? And it's not exactly like the band was going anywhere."

"…Who are you and what have you done with my brother?"

"Really," Daria said, so softly I barely even heard her.

"There are more important things in life than music, Janie. Besides, I needed a steady job." A crooked smile spread across his face. "And I got a great one. Ever hear of The Sharing?"

"The Sharing? Isn't that some sort of…coed Girl Scouts or something?"

"Nah, it's a lot cooler than that. They let in everyone—adults, kids, whoever. I got a job helping them organize events and stuff. There's actually a big meeting tonight down by the lake. You guys should come."

"Hmm. 'The Sharing.' Sounds like something Mr. O'Neill would come up with," Daria drawled.

Trent chuckled, which after a moment turned into a hacking cough. "Well, it's gonna be really cool," he said, grinning at her. "Probably a lot more fun than just hanging around at the home or the mall or something."

"Hmm," I said noncommittally.

Trent went back to his pizza before glancing up at me. "Speaking of the mall, did you hear about the UFOs last night?"

"UFOs?" I mentally kicked myself; my tone had remained fairly even, but my response sounded too quick even to my ears. "What UFOs?"

"Apparently some kids were setting off fireworks in that old construction site. Some people called the police to say that there were flying saucers or something." He grinned again. "Crazy, right?"

"Sure is."

"Yeah. I mean, intelligent life never came to Lawndale _before._ What's its motivation to start now?"

"Heh, yeah." Trent leaned forward. "But it's kind of cool, isn't it? Freaking everybody out like that. Do you guys know who was doing it?"

"Well, it had to be someone dumb enough to think that setting off fires and explosions constitutes a good time, so that narrows it down to most of the people I know."

"Hmm." Trent finished his pizza and rose to his feet. "Well, anyway. I'm gonna catch a few Z's before The Sharing meeting tonight. See ya later."

He left. It wasn't until we heard his door close upstairs that I turned back to Daria, who looked pale.

"Wow. Can you believe he quit the band?" I shook my head. "And just—out of nowhere, too. He never even talked to me about it."

"Uh-huh."

"And for an actual _job?_ At some stupid club, of all places?" I shook my head slightly and picked up my pizza. "Man, he's acting weird lately."

"…Jane? You don't get it, do you?"

"What?"

"Acting weird? Suddenly changing his whole lifestyle? Asking us if we know anything about the 'fireworks' last night?"

I felt another chill. "What are you saying, Daria?" Our eyes locked. "Jane…I'm saying that Trent is probably a Controller.


	5. The Sharing

"_What?_"

"Keep your voice down!" Daria hissed, glancing over to the doorway. She waited a moment to see if Trent would come back, then turned to me. "Think about it. Did Trent give you any indication that he was about to quit the _one_ thing that he's actually been doing with his life since he was twelve?"

"That doesn't prove anything!" I retorted, even as I felt doubt gnawing in the back of my mind. "Like he said, it's not like the work was steady."

"And Trent cares about a steady income since…?"

"Shut up!" I crossed my arms and looked away from her, glaring at the floor. "Trent's not a Controller, okay? He's _not._"

I expected Daria to argue, but instead she just gave me a long look. I stared back.

"What do we know about The Sharing?"

I took a deep breath. "Nothing, really. I've heard about it somewhere. Didn't they spend a guy to speak at an assembly early this year?"

"I think so. I don't really remember a lot about it—it's hard to stay awake for anything that follows an anti-drug skit." She frowned, a barely noticeable change in her usual somber expression. "Trent seemed awfully eager for us to go to that meeting tonight."

"So what? If he helped put the meeting together, how's it any different than him inviting us to one of his gigs at the Zon?"

"Because he's never invited us to a gig while grinning. Especially not so…"

"…Grinningly?"

"Yeah." Daria's eyes darting to the doorway again. "Can we go over to my house? Somehow I don't feel comfortable here anymore."

I felt my nostrils flare, but stood up. "Fine. But you're worried about _nothing._"

Daria didn't answer, but I could tell from her expression that she believed what I was saying even less than I did.

* * *

Daria's mom was out by the time we got to her house, while her father was sitting on the couch watching a football game. We headed upstairs. I thought we were going to Daria's room, but instead she headed for the half-open door across the hall. Quinn was inside, standing in front two separate mirrors and holding up various outfits.

"Quinn?"

She jumped, spinning around. "_Agh!_ Don't you ever knock?" she grumbled, turning back to her reflections. "What do you want? I'm trying to coordinate."

"Do you know anything about a club called 'The Sharing?'"

I shot a look at Daria as Quinn scoffed loudly. "Ugh, yeah. That's the stupid club that Sandi and Tiffany keep blowing me off for."

"Sandi and Tiffany?"

"See, Daria? It's just a normal school club or something."

"Jane, your brother and Sandi Griffin are in the same social group. That doesn't strike you as _a little_ suspicious?"

"Yeah, well, that's the thing about The Sharing—Sandi keeps going on and on about how it's so inclusive and lets everybody in no matter how old or ugly or unpopular they are—as if that's supposed to make me _want_ to join!"

I felt another chill. Daria turned to me. "Your brother and the Sultana of Snobs both do a 180 in personality as soon as they join this place. It _can't_ be a coincidence."

"What are you two talking about?" Quinn demanded; she kept her back to us, but the faces in her mirrors had suddenly turned hard.

"We think that The Sharing is some sort of club for Controllers."

"No, _you_ think that. _I_ think that Trent's just undergoing temporary insanity."

"Well, _I_ thought we agreed not to talk about this anymore!" Quinn finally spun around to glare at us.

"No we didn't. We just said to wait until we had any ideas. _This_ is an idea."

"What idea?" I demanded.

"Trent says there's a meeting tonight down by the lake. I say we all check out the meeting and see how many club members are acting like Pod People."

Quinn threw her clothes onto her bed. "No way! I already missed my shopping trip, there's no way I'm going to miss my date! And why do you even think Jane's brother is a—Controller thing anyway?"

"He quit his band."

"So?"

"So in terms of personality, that's like if you left the house in a muumuu and Birkenstocks."

"_Ewww!"_

"My point exactly."

"Well, Sandi and Tiffany are _definitely_ not Controllers. Their clothes are as stylish as ever. Now go away. I have to get ready for Adam."

"Quinn, your date is _not_ more important than the fate of humanity. Especially when you cancelled on Adam last week to go out with another guy just because he had a Porsche."

"_Just_ because he had a Porsche?"

"Hey, I don't see any point in this either," I snapped. "_You_ just made up this little plan all on your own. We haven't even discussed it with Jodie yet. Or Upchuck," I added. "And I don't see any point when we have no real proof that Trent is a Controller."

"Or Sandi or Tiffany," Quinn added.

We both glared at Daria. She glared back. In the back of my mind I realized how weird it was to be allied with Quinn against my best friend, but I pushed that thought away while I waited for Daria's rebuttal.

To my surprise, she managed to stay fairly calm. "You both are right," she conceded. "We _don't_ know if Trent is a Controller. Or Sandi or Tiffany. But you're wrong that there's no reason to think that they _might_ be. So wouldn't you rather find out?"

I looked away. Quinn did too, but with her nose turned up at us.

"…It's just a meeting, right?" I murmured.

"If I'm wrong, yes, it'll just be a big, stupid group of people. Like going to one of Brittany's parties."

"So you…_don't_ want to go?"

"You know what I mean."

* * *

We called the others. We decided not to go in details on the phone—Daria was paranoid that they might be bugged or something—but explained that we could probably do research on our "school project" if we talked to some people there. They both seemed to get the gist of what we were saying.

Quinn got off the phone. "Sandi said that she and Tiffany were going to be at the meeting." She didn't sound happy about that. "And apparently Stacy got out of babysitting so she's coming too. They'll be by in an hour."

"Okay, so Quinn's going with the Fashion Clones. We hitching a ride with Trent?" I asked.

"I don't think that's a good idea," Daria said cautiously. "I told Jodie we'd meet her at her house. Upchuck's catching a ride with his cousins."

"Okay. I'll call Trent and let him know we're coming, though. Unless you think that's too much information for the evil alien invader." I really didn't mean for my voice to come out so much like a sneer.

Trent sounded excited when I said we'd be there. That left me worried—Trent rarely sounded "excited" about anything—but I decided to ignore it. Hell, it was a _good_ thing if Trent was finally trying to wake up early and hold a steady job—why did him growing up worry me so much? Just because it seemed kind of sudden and…un-Trent-ish?

Jodie answered the door for us a little while later; she was dressed, but her hair was noticeably wet. "Hey, guys," she said, stepping out of the house and closing the door carefully behind her. "I was just in the pool. Trying this whole morphing thing," she added under her breath.

"Ah, welcome to the club, _amiga._ How'd it go?"

She made a face. "Not great. I was careful to wait until my parents took my brother and sister out, made sure the neighbors couldn't see through the back fence, but somehow _completely_ failed to realize that a pet fish can't live in chlorinated water."

"Seriously?"

"Yeah. I feel pretty stupid," she admitted as we boarded into her family's second car. "My skin was burning like crazy! Or scales, I guess. I had to demorph quick before I started swimming belly-up."

"'Demorph?' We have a verb for that now?"

"But here's something weird," Jodie continued. "When you and Upchuck morphed, you guys just sort of shrunk out of your clothes, right?"

"Well, fortunately we were in respective situations when it happened, but yeah."

"Well, I didn't. My bathing suit just sort of…I dunno, fused into my skin or something. And when I turned human again it reappeared. I'm not sure how. Maybe just because I was wearing something tighter than a T-shirt?"

"That doesn't really make much scientific sense," Daria noted.

"Good to know, though. Fighting alien invaders is going to be even scarier if we have to do it with Upchuck seeing us _au naturel._"

"Not that going around in a bikini will be much better," Jodie sighed. "So. What exactly are we doing at this Sharing meeting anyway?"

Daria filled her in with what was going on (or as I was trying to think of it, her paranoid delusions) as we made the drive to the lake, in the big forest just north of town. The parking lot was already half full when we arrived, and there was a fairly large crowd down by the water. There were some older adults and families with kids, but most of the people seemed to be around our age or Trent's. I recognized a few people from school.

I felt nervous as we trudged down to the party. I don't usually feel nervous in social situations—just the life-or-death ones. "Okay, so what's our plan exactly?" I wondered. "How do we find out if these guys are Controllers?"

"I guess we just mingle," Jodie said uncertainly. "Ask some questions about The Sharing and see if anything seems off." She held up a notebook she had brought from the car. "Plus, sometimes I write for the school paper. My official story is that we're thinking about doing a feature and I'm here to take notes."

"Good idea," Daria said. She pointed into the crowd. "Okay, I see Upchuck. Jane, you go find Trent while the two of us fill him in."

We split up. I spot Trent over near the DJ, where there was a table set up with snacks. I took a deep breath and walked over to him. I felt stupid for feeling so anxious—this was _Trent,_ for crying out loud.

"Hey, Trent!" I said, forcing enthusiasm into my voice.

He looked up and smiled. "Hey, Janie, you made it!" He frowned. "Didn't you say Daria was coming too?"

"She's off mingling."

"…Are we talking about the same Daria?"

"Well, I didn't say she was doing it _willingly._" I smirked in spite of myself.  
The next hour seemed to go by quickly. The crowd quickly turned into a low-key beach party—once the sun went down a huge bonfire went up, and some of the head Sharing guys started grilling hamburgers and hotdogs for the crowd. Some people threw Frisbees or played volleyball, which got progressively funnier as the dim light made people trip over their own feet. I was actually having a good time.

I stayed close to Trent for most of it, and the more I did the more my worry faded. He leaned lazily against the refreshment table, groaned when he had to help with something, and complained with me about the lame pop songs that the DJ kept playing. We laughed together when Upchuck took a turn at the volleyball game and got smacked in the face at the first throw. Everything was perfectly normal, not counting the fact that technically Trent being here counted as "work."

"I have to admit, this is a pretty cool party you guys set up."

"Thanks, Janie," Trent said, smiling as he nodded at the crowd of happy, laughing people. "But you know, what I really like about The Sharing is that it's not _just_ about parties or whatever. That's why I quit Mystik Spiral for this. The Sharing can do all kinds of things for you, once you're a full member."

That mildly creeped out feeling crawled back up my spine. "'Full member?'" I said, trying to sound casual. "What's that mean?"

He smiled again. But it was another…weird smile. An un-Trent-ish smile. "Well, first you start as an associate member—you know, just the regular meetings and everything. Later the leaders decide whether to ask you to become a full member. Then you get to be involved in the _really_ cool stuff. Once you become a full member…the whole world changes."

He was still smiling serenely. I felt a bead of sweat fall down the back of my neck.

"That reminds me," Trent said, "I gotta take off in a few minutes. The full members have their own special meeting. Why don't you go find Daria? She probably needs to be rescued from all this fun, right?"

"Ha, yeah. Right."

Trent headed off. I turned back to the crowd. My thoughts were warring with each other—okay, sure, Trent was acting a _little_ weird, but maybe he was just excited about this new job. It didn't mean—

I caught sight of Jodie and Daria, talking to a girl I recognized vaguely from school. I headed over to them.

"—don't really know much more than that. I'm not like an official member of anything, but these parties are pretty cool."

"Okay. Thanks, Kristen," Jodie said, scribbling in her notepad. Daria pulled her sleeve and motioned to me. "Oh! Hey, Jane."

"Hey," I said, as Kristen and her friends walked away. My throat felt oddly tight. "Where are the others?"

Quinn, naturally, was hanging out with the rest of the Fashion Club, but made up some excuse to leave when we motioned to her through the crowd. Upchuck spotted us and joined too, grinning widely and waving his hands.

"Guess what I got," he said in an annoying, singsong voice.

"The clap?"

"That would imply he had sex, Jane."

"Oh, yeah. Rabies?"

"Oh, your words sting—but no. _Six_ phone numbers," Upchuck said, and when he held his hand still I could indeed make out writing on both of his palms. "A personal record."

"As if we needed more reasons to be suspicious of these people," Daria muttered.

Upchuck blinked. "What do you mean?" Quinn demanded. "Everything seems fine here. Well…except for all the _losers_ they let in," she added, giving Upchuck a frosty look.

"Can't you feel it?" Jodie asked. "Everybody acts so weird around here. Or at least, the members do. Especially the 'full' members."

I felt another chill go up my spine. Quinn just looked haughty. "Hey! Sandi and Tiffany are full members!"

"And I bet they said that you and Stacy should join up too, didn't they?" Daria asked.

"So?"

"So that's what every full member we talked to said," Jodie said. "People keep telling me that all their problems disappeared once they became a full member."

I took a deep breath. "That was…_kind of_ how Trent was acting just now too."

"And everybody is acting _way_ too happy," Daria muttered, looking around. "And way too nice to each other. I saw one of the football players flirting with a girl in chess club. These people are _not_ acting like normal teenagers."

"I don't follow," Upchuck said.

I sighed. "Let me put it this way, Upchuck: how many girls give you their phone numbers on an _average_ night?"

"…A couple," he murmured weakly, looking at his feet.

"Do you remember when Mr. DeMartino made us do that essay about cults? That's what these people remind me of," Jodie said, scanning the crowd. "I mean, some people seem normal. Even some of the members. But even a lot of the associate members…like, see Priscilla over there?"

"Ugh, that girl with the horrible gray sweater?"

"Yeah," Jodie said, flipping back through several pages of notes she had taken. "All she wanted to talk to me about was her family problems and how she doesn't have any friends, but how everyone at The Sharing is so nice and accepting…I mean, this place sounds great on paper," she said uneasily. "But I just feel like…they're trying to suck you in. And like most of these people already _have_ been."

"So we're talking either a mass suicide or alien invaders."

"Or that you all are being _crazy,_" Quinn muttered, glaring in the opposite direction.

There was a long pause. I looked away, staring at the crowd. "There's some kind of separate meeting for the full members," I muttered, ignoring the way that my insides were churning.

"I'd like to know what they're talking about," Daria said.

"But how do we find out?"

Jodie looked thoughtful. "Well, if they _are_ Controllers, they're not going to let any normal people get close. But they might not be so worried about some animals."

Upchuck slowly grinned. "Oh-ho-ho, I like where this is going," he said, rubbing his hands together. "A little aerial reconnaissance?"

"I'm thinking you _and_ Jane," she said, startling me. "As long as you don't get close enough for your brother to recognize that you look just like his housecat. Is that okay?"

I felt my stomach churn again, but I nodded. "Yeah, okay. I guess."

We hid behind some sand dunes and, after making sure nobody was around to see us, started to morph.

Even though I had already done it twice in one day, morphing into Taylor was _still_ totally bizarre. Apparently morphing didn't have any sort of set rules about how it worked—this time I was already half my size and growing a tail before a single strand of fur appeared. At the same time, Upchuck's arms were shrinking and growing feathers, even as his eyes turned yellow and his nose shot out like Pinocchio, twisting into a beak. And as weird as morphing felt, it was just as bad to watch.

"_Ewww!_ This is so _gross!_" Quinn said, looking away.

"Just _waaaooowww,_" I said as my vocal chords suddenly changed. I grimaced as I fell onto my four paws. ((Just wait until it's your turn,)) I corrected. ((Whoa!))  
"What?"

((It's just…my eyes.)) I looked around at the humans and the transformed Upchuck, who was crawling out of his clothes and flapping his wings. ((This morning they seemed kind of crummy, but—wow, you wouldn't _believe_ the night-vision! It's like the sun just went up.))

((I can see the meeting from here,)) Upchuck bragged. ((They're about a hundred yards away. But they have people standing around. Like guards,)) he added ominously.

"Be careful, then. Both of you," Jodie said.

Daria bent down to ruffle my fur, making me look more like a stray. I was surprised when she pet my head. "Yeah. Careful," she agreed.

I nodded (which probably looked ridiculous). Then, feeling my little kitty heart pound in my chest, I took off across the sand as Upchuck (letting out a psychic laugh) flew into the air above me.

I'm willing to admit that I was scared. My brother might be a mind-controlling alien, I was sneaking into a meeting of people who might want to kill me, and, oh yeah, I was currently a twenty-pound housecat. But at the same time, my cat senses were an amazing distraction. The sea breeze sounded like a giant fan put right next to my ears. Everything looked so bright that it was impossible to believe that it was night. My whiskers kept twitching, almost like a completely new sense of touch, and I was bounding with energy and excitement and—

MOUSE!

It scurried out of a patch of grass and took off across the sand. Immediately I swerved off course to follow—it was a plump, juicy-looking thing, letting out a squeak of fear, but there was no way it was fast enough to outrun me! I ran as fast as I could, and without even thinking tensed my back legs, springing off into a leap—

"_CAAAWWW!_"

"_ROWWWL!_"

Out of nowhere, some bird swooped down and collided with me! I crashed to the ground as the bird swooped back, struggling to stay in the air. The mouse, meanwhile, tore off, disappearing into a hole in the sand.

I struggled back onto my paws, spitting out sand. ((Upchuck! What the hell? I was gonna eat that mouse!))

((_You?_)) Upchuck demanded, sounding uncharacteristically angry. ((That was _my_ dinner, you mangy feline! I saw it first, and—))

We both seemed to realize what we were saying at the same moment. He fell silent, and each of us quickly looked in different directions.

((We…probably don't need to mention this little incident to the rest of the gang.))

((Or to each other. Ever again.))

((Deal.))

* * *

The full members were sitting in a circle, hidden by the dunes. But even if I couldn't see them, I could hear and smell them fine. I took a deep breath and somehow managed to pick out Trent's scent from among the thirty or so others. Hard to tell if that was my nose being awesome or him just not showering, I thought wryly.

There were guards standing around the area, but none of them seemed to notice as I strolled by casually a few yards away. Nor did any of them look up and notice the osprey flying above them.

((And how is my sly, sleek senorita doing down there, may I ask?))

((Can it, Upchuck.)) I was "aiming" my thoughts at Upchuck and praying that nobody else could hear them. ((I can't see from where I am; what are they doing?))

((Just sitting around, as far as I can—))

Suddenly I heard a scoff. "Where _is_ she?" I recognized the voice as Sandi Griffin, Quinn's so-called friend and president of the high school's snobs club.

"Here she comes," somebody else said.

"Quiet, everyone!" a new voice said. "We have problems."

I froze, eyes widening. I recognized that voice. In fact…I recognized it just from last night, when that uncannily familiar voice had hissed orders at the Hork-Bajir chasing us.

((Jane—is that _Ms. Li?_))

((I can't see, but—yeah, I think so.))

"Item one," Ms. Li said, her voice hard. "We still have not found those little _hooligans_ who were at Elfangor's crash site last night. I want them found. Visser Three wants them found. Does anyone have any clues?"

There was a momentary silence before, to my horror, Trent spoke up.

"It could have been anyone. But it _might_ have been my host's sister. She and some of her friends have been acting kind of weird the last day or so. That's why I brought her here tonight. So we could either make her ours…or kill her.


	6. Courses of Action

**Author's Notes:** Well, this is the last of my buffer—hopefully I'll update soon, but I'm going to have to get some writing done first. Wish me luck, and I hope you enjoy!

* * *

I felt like I had been punched. My knees shook so hard that I fell onto my haunches.

"Uh-uh-uh," Ms. Li said, as if she were scolding someone for running in the halls. "We are trying to _avoid_ unwanted attention, remember. We can't just go around killing children at a Sharing meeting, especially if we're not even sure they're the right ones."

"Killing them would be a waste of perfectly good bodies anyway," Sandi said haughtily. "And frankly, _I_ don't see what the fuss is all about. A bunch of stupid human children are not going to stay quiet about this for long. We just need to set the bait and let them come."

"But we should still try to find them first," another Controller said. "Who's to say who they'll blab _to._"

"It might have been Quinn and Stacy." It took me a moment to recognize the speaker as Tiffany Blum-Deckler, Sandi's sidekick. Her normal drawl was much less noticeable, and her voice had a hard edge to it that I had never heard before.

"The other two members of the Fashion Club?"

"They were at the mall last night, but they were alone," Sandi said dismissively. "Reports say there were at least five humans. Frankly, the question is irrelevant. Those two are overdue for an infestation either way."

"Maybe we should take them now. _And_ my host's sister," Trent said.

"I remind you, we do not have the resources to take _every_ human here to the Yeerk Pool at once," Ms. Li grumbled. She cleared her throat. "But, if Sub-Visser Fifty-One feels that the Morgendorffer and Rowe girls should be infested immediately, then I—"

"_Thank_ you, Iniss Two-Two-Six, but that won't be necessary. I _think_ I can arrange a voluntary infestation on my own, if that's okay?"

"Um—yes, of course," Ms. Li stammered.

My head was swimming. This was too much—my brother and half of the kids from school were Controllers, they were talking about killing us mere yards away from me, and Sandi, in all her hyped-up Valley Girl glory, was bossing around the school principal. Suddenly being a cat seemed downright normal.

Ms. Li took a moment to recover. "And speaking of the Yeerk Pool, I am pleased to announce that we have repaired the mall entrance after the recent cave-in. Use will resume tomorrow and be accessible whenever the mall is open."

"Finally."

"Took long enough…"

((Jane?)) Upchuck 'tone' was tentative but urgent. ((Are you hearing this? …Jane?))

((Yeah, I'm…I'm listening.))

One of the other Controllers was talking now. "…can't make it for my shift on Monday night. My host has a thing."

"I have to go to the Pool Monday night," Trent said. "I can do a quick shift after I feed."

"Excellent, Temrash Two-Five-Two. Always good to see some teamwork," Ms. Li said—she sounded like she was giving a speech to the football team or something. "So, how else can we track down these little brats?"

They talked for a while longer—most of their plans were rejected for some reason or another, and I found it hard to keep up. Admittedly, it might have been easier to pay attention if my head wasn't spinning—or if Trent's voice wasn't echoing in my mind.

…_either make her ours…or kill her._

_Kill her._

((Jane? Jane, I think we should head back now,)) Upchuck was saying, again in a cautious tone that 'sounded' strange for him.

((Yeah…yeah, okay.))

I put my head down and walked across the sand, again unseen by the guards. Upchuck flew overhead, neither of us speaking. He didn't even make any lewd comments when we got back to the others and had to demorph behind separate sand dunes.

"How did it go?" Jodie asked as I silently began to pull my clothes back on.

I bit my lip. "Daria was right. Trent's a Controller."

Daria didn't look happy to be right.

"Wait—_just_ Jane's brother, or all the full members?" Quinn asked, though I could tell that she had already guessed the answer.

"All of them. Including Sandi and Tiffany." Quinn looked like she had been slapped. For the first time in my life, I felt like I could relate to her. "And Ms. Li, too, believe it or not."

"Ms. Li? Like our principal?"

"Yeah. Turns out she really _is_ the evil monster we always thought she was."

"And they're definitely looking for us," Upchuck added. He emerged from behind his sand dune, fixing the last button of his shirt . "Jane's brother said that he only brought her here because he's suspicious. Of _all_ of us."

"Oh, hell," Jodie said, putting her hand to her face.

"Don't worry—Ms. Li and Sandi shot him down," I said, my voice still shaking. "I think they're the leaders. And weirdly enough, I think Sandi is higher on the Yeerk totem pole. Ms. Li called her 'Sub-Visser Fifty-Something.'"

"Sub-visser? Like that Visser Three guy?" Daria wondered.

"I guess. They all had these weird names full of numbers," I said. I rubbed for brow; I was getting a headache. "The point is, they're trying to wait us out. They figure somebody will come forward with information, like with that reward in the paper. And I think Sandi wants you and Stacy to become Yeerks voluntarily," I added, looking at Quinn.

"_Voluntarily?_ Like…_let them_ put one of those things in my head?"

"That seems to be what this whole Sharing thing is about," Jodie said quietly. "Brainwash these people into thinking that they have to be full members to be happy, so that they'll agree to do _anything_ to make it happen."

"That's insane!"

"Pretty much, yeah."

"And they mentioned something else, too," Upchuck said. "Something about a 'Yeerk Pool.'"

"A Yeerk Pool? What's _that?_"

"Wait…" Daria said slowly. "Didn't Visser Three mention something about that last night? That he would build a ton of them once the world was conquered?"

"Ms. Li made it sound like she would have to drag us down there to infest us," I said. "And they talked about having shifts there."

"So it must be something important?" Jodie suggested. "Like the place where they keep Yeerks before they infest people?"

"Something we can attack," I murmured, rising slowly to my feet.

"Wait—_attack?_" Quinn cried. "Are you _crazy?_"

I rounded on her. "Well, what else are we supposed to do?"

"I don't know! But attacking that place would just—get us all killed!"

"So what? You think we should just do nothing? And let my brother stay a slave to those—_things?_"

"And what do you think _you're_ gonna do? Just break onto the alien mother ship like Will Smith or something?"

"If I have to!"

"Quinn, shouldn't _you_ be more worried?" Jodie's tone was calm but curious. "Sandi and Tiffany are your friends, aren't they? Don't you want to save them from the Yeerks too?"

I heard myself scoff. "Please. Quinn's probably just wondering she can use Sandi being an alien slug to boost her own popularity." I was surprised by how vicious I sounded, and by how fiercely Quinn managed to glare back at me.

"_No!_ But why don't _you_ think for a minute, huh? You want to fight the Yeerks, Jane? Well, your brother _is_ a Yeerk! What happens when you go to this pool place and it turns out _he's_ the one shooting at you with this ray gun or whatever?"

I opened my mouth to speak—and faltered. All the arguments and insults I had seemed to shrivel up on the tip of my tongue.

"Yeah. Didn't think about _that,_ did you?" Quinn sneered.

"Okay—both of you, stop fighting," Jodie said, casting a look back at the beach party. "We don't want anybody to hear us. We just have to stop and think about this rationally."

"I hate to admit it, but Quinn brings up a good point," Daria said quietly. "If we _do_ fight the Yeerks, how do we do it without hurting the people they're infesting?"

"Human shields," Upchuck murmured. He rubbed his chin like this was a puzzle he was trying to solve.

"Yeah. It's like the Civil War, if they put the slaves on the front lines of the Confederate Army," Jodie admitted.

They all turned to look at me. Probably because I was the only one who had a direct stake in this. I looked away, thinking. What was I _supposed_ to say? All I could do was picture myself as some massive animal, forced to fight Trent as he wielded a Dracon beam for an evil alien army.

"We _can't_ just leave Trent like this," I muttered. "And we can't let the Yeerks just run free, either. Maybe I will have to fight Trent. Maybe even—" I broke off before I could even finish the thought. "But if we don't do something to stop them, do you think they'll stop at Trent? They'll take your brothers and sisters, too. And your parents. And your friends," I added, giving Quinn a pointed look. "We either fight these people to get them free or we'll fight them later when they try to infest _us."_

Nobody spoke for a while. Jodie finally broke the silence, though I'm not sure if she was talking to us or herself. "What can we do, anyway? Do we even know where this Yeerk Pool is?"

Upchuck perked up. "Actually, we do. It's in the mall."

"The _mall?"_

"Well, Ms. Li said that the 'entrance' was in the mall," I muttered. "I think it's actually beneath it—she mentioned something about fixing a cave-in."

"The mall's pretty big. She didn't mention anything else?"

"Not really."

"But we could go and look," Upchuck suggested with a grin. "Scope the place out. There's gotta be some kind of clue somewhere."

"Finding something at the mall. Well, here's _one_ part of the mission that you might actually be good at, Quinn," Daria said dryly.

Quinn turned her nose up. "I never said that I was going along with all this."

"So you're passing up a chance to go to the mall? And here I thought Jane turning into a cat was the strangest thing that I was going to see today."

"What about the rest of you?" I asked, my voice taking a harder edge than I intended. "Anyone else in?"

Nobody spoke for a moment. Finally, Daria sighed. "Aw, hell. Fine. At least until we come up with someone else to drop this on, I'm in. For you and Trent."

I felt my face break into a smile and, despite myself, threw one arm around Daria's shoulders. "Ha! I knew you still had a little crush on him."

"Shut up."

"I'm in too," Upchuck said with an oily smirk.

"What about you?" I asked, turning to Jodie.

She sighed. "I agree with Daria—we need somebody else to dump this on. I still don't think we _can_ stop the Yeerks, or save your brother, or anything on our own. But…if it was my little brother or sister, I would want to do anything I could to save them. So if we can find this Pool thing and don't have any other choice, I'm in."

Quinn was looking very pointedly away, but couldn't seem to resist the force of the rest of us staring at her. She turned, then let out a growl, kicking at the sand with her overly-priced sandals. "Alright, _fine!_ I'll help find the stupid pool thing. But this is still crazy!" Her eyes flickered back to The Sharing meeting. "Now let's just get back to the party before Sandi and the others get back and realize we're gone."

* * *

We went back to the party, where all the associate members and non-members like us were still having a good time. It suddenly felt kinda scary to watch everybody dance around to stupid pop songs and trip over themselves playing volleyball. "It's so weird. None of them even realize what's going on just a few yards down the beach."

"Yeah."

"Shouldn't we, like…do something?" I looked over at the DJ; was he a Controller too? Maybe we could grab his microphone or…

"Forget it," Daria said, as if reading my mind. "For all we know, there still might be some Controllers in this crowd. And even if there aren't, what happens when Trent and the others get back and shoot us with their Dracon beams?"

"Yeah…I guess." I glanced past the crowd, breath catching in my throat; the full members were straggling back from their meeting. "And speaking of which…"

"Play it cool."

"Oh, sure…cool as a cucumber. A cucumber that's about to throw up, anyway."

Trent's head appeared over the crowd. He scanned the area, finally focusing on us and gliding over. "Hey, Janie. Daria."

"Hey, Trent."

"Yeah…hey," I said, feeling my stomach knot up. I forced myself to smile. "How did you 'secret meeting' go?" I was trying to sound mocking, but my throat was closing up and making it hard to speak at all.

(_…either make her ours…or kill her._

_Kill her._

_Kill her._)

Trent smiled. Or Trent's face smiled, anyway. Trent hardly ever smiled-how could I ever have been fooled by this? He looked so fake. I could practically see the slimy slug wrapped around his brain, moving my brother's facial muscles like they were the strings of a marionette.

"Fine. Just some boring business stuff. Shifts, budgets, that kind of thing." The alien leaned against the refreshment table and popped a chip into Trent's mouth. Trent's teeth chewed it, then swallowed.

I swallowed too, unconsciously. Daria's face turned the slightest degree in my direction. Trent's mouth frowned.

"Hey, you okay, Janie?" Not-Trent asked. "You look kinda pale."

"That's because she ate the shrimp," Daria said. "I _told_ her it was starting to smell funny." I have to admit, Daria was a good actress—her tone came out with just the right balance of deadpan and disdain to sound perfectly normal.

"Oh, really? Damn. Spent a lot of money on those, too."

"You know, it actually might just be better if I went home," I said, a bit more quickly than I intended.

"Do you want me to drive you?" The Yeerk wasn't nearly as good an actor as Daria. Trent's eyebrows knitted a bit, his voice changed an octave, but his concern sounded so phony, phony, phony that suddenly I just wanted to scream.

"No, I was thinking about leaving anyway. I'll drive her," Daria said. I was suddenly thankful we hadn't told him about Jodie giving us a ride—he was suspicious enough of our group, and me and Daria alone felt a lot more natural.

"Okay then. If you're sure." Trent's voice sounded disappointed. _The Yeerk's probably still upset that Ms. Li and Sandi didn't want to kill me, _I thought. "Feel better, Janie."

Daria led me into the crowd, bending near to mutter "Let's go find Jodie. I really _do_ want to get out of here as soon as possible. As if normal parties weren't bad enough."

"Yeah."

* * *

"You sure you're gonna be alright?" Jodie asked as I stepped out of her car in front of my house.

"You can spend the night at my house, if you want," Daria added.

"Don't worry, I'm fine. As long as Trent doesn't try to slip a slug into my ear while I'm sleeping," I muttered.

Daria glanced at my house nervously. "No one else is home right now, are they?"

"Not until Mom gets back from Japan." Daria and Jodie looked at each other nervously. I shook my head. "No—don't worry, I'll be fine."

"Okay," Jodie said reluctantly. "But call one of us if you need anything. Okay?"

"Yeah." I shut the car door. "See you tomorrow."

"See you."

They drove off. I dragged myself inside and up the stairs, flopping face-down onto my bed without bothering to change.

I lay there for a long time, probably more than an hour, thinking and trying hard not to.

Trent, a Controller. Goofy, lazy Trent, now helping to orchestrate an alien invasion. The older brother I had once shared this room with, plotting to kill me.

I heard footsteps and tensed up. After what felt like a very long moment there was a knock at the door. I pulled the covers over my head as I heard the door slowly creak open.

"Janie? You awake?"

I didn't move, didn't breathe, but wondered how it was possible the Yeerk disguised as Trent didn't hear my heart hammering in my chest. What would he do if he thought I was asleep? Kill me? Pull one of his friends out of his pocket and slip it in my ear? What would I do if he tried? I wasn't sure if I could fight off Trent, and turning into a housecat didn't seem like it would improve my chances much.

The door creaked shut. I waited a long moment before sitting up and glancing toward the doorway. Trent was gone.

I immediately got up and locked the door, then moved my chair in front of it for good measure.

I crept back to my bed and pulled the covers back on, taking a deep breath.

"Don't worry, Trent. I promise I'm gonna get you out of this. No matter what.


	7. Changing Rooms

I left the house as soon as I could the next morning, unable to stand the thought of being alone with Not-Trent any more than I had to. Daria's and I spent the next few hours hanging around her house, alternating between awkwardly watching TV and awkwardly trying to talk about anything other than alien brain parasites and interspecies shapeshifting. This turned out to be significantly more difficult than it had been a few days before.

I glanced over at the clock as _Sick, Sad World's_ credits began to play. "2:30. Time to head over to the mall and meet the others?" My voice sounded hollow, even to me.

"Yeah," Daria said, rising from her bed. "Let's go get Quinn."

We knocked on Quinn's door across the hall. No answer. Daria knocked again. "Quinn?"  
The door opened. Quinn emerged wearing a blue sweater I had never seen her in before and a pair of fashionable sunglasses, her hair pulled up and hidden under a hat. "Let's go," she said tersely, sweeping past with hardly a glance at either of us. Daria and I exchanged glances.

Quinn walked several feet ahead of us all the way to the mall. She never looked back, but jumped at every passing car. "Well, it's an alien apocalypse, but at least she won't be seen with her loser cousin," Daria mumbled.

Quinn got to the end of the sidewalk and froze. The abandoned construction site was right across the street from her, standing between us and the mall. Quinn spun on her heel and stalked off, taking the long way around. Daria and I walked up to the street, staring off at the half-finished buildings.

"It looks so normal. From here, anyway." I gave her a look. "If we looked around there, do you think we would find…something?"

"I doubt it. The Yeerks must have destroyed any traces of the Andalite's ship," she said quietly. "Besides…I wouldn't be surprised if they were watching it."

"Ha. Paranoid as always, I see."

We followed Quinn the long way, giving the site wary glances out of the corner of our eyes. When we got to the front of the mall we found that Quinn had stopped again, though, staring at a crowd that gathered around a white van.

"What's going on?" Quinn wondered, standing on her toes to see over the crowd.

"Who cares?" I grumbled. "Let's just inside, Jodie and Upchuck are already—wait, is that Glenda Eichler?"

"What?"

"Who?"

A man shooed the crowd away while a second hefted a camera, aiming it at a petite woman with light brown hair. She wore a business suit and carried a microphone.

"Are we ready, Dustin?" The cameraman counted down with his fingers, then pointed at her. "This is _Sick, Sad World_ reporting from the latest center of alien activity, here in Lawndale, Maryland. Reports of UFO sightings have abounded over the last several days, centered around this very mall. Police say that they were just some errant fireworks—but what do the people who saw them think?"

"Ooh! Ooh! Ms. Eichler! I saw the UFO!" someone called.

"Pick me, pick me!"

"I went on board the spaceship! The aliens had three eyes and—"

"Okay, okay, enough jabbering!" the first man shouted. "Everybody who wants to give a statement, form a single-file line over here! You will need picture ID—"

Quinn stepped forward—I immediately grabbed her arm and yanked her back. "What are you doing?"

"_Duh,_ talking to the reporter lady!" Quinn dropped her voice to a hiss. "This is our chance! We just tell them about the Yeerks and—"

"—let the whole invasion force know who we are? Are you crazy?"

"We'd be letting _everyone_ know about _everything,_" Quinn snapped, pulling her arm back. "You guys said we wouldn't have to do this if we could find a way to tell somebody else!"

"I meant like alerting the army or the president," Daria said testily. "Nobody ever believes the stuff on _Sick, Sad World_—the only people we would be ticking off are the Yeerks. Assuming that _they_ aren't Controllers themselves," she added, giving the crew a dark look.

Quinn looked at her like she was crazy. "Why would Controllers be reporting about their _own_ invasion?"

"To draw _us_ into the open, you idiot! Don't you get how serious this is?" I grabbed her arm again. "Now come on!"

"But—ugh, damn it!"

We dragged Quinn inside, where she finally stopped struggling and trailed behind us, arms crossed. We made our way to the food court. It was mostly empty at this time of day, so it was easy to spot Jodie and Upchuck already waiting for us at a table.

Daria and I slid into chairs while Quinn remained standing. "Hey. Did you see what's going on outside?"

"Yeah. That's the host from that _Sick, Sad World_ show you guys watch, right?" Jodie dropped her voice to a whisper. "You think there's any chance that they're legit?"

"_Sick, Sad World_ has _never_ been legit. That's what makes it entertaining," Daria said. "But I'm willing to bet that this is more bait set up by the Controllers."

Upchuck frowned. "Seems normal enough to me," he said, a slight whine in his voice. "A show like that _would_ come to Lawndale for a UFO sighting."

"And the Yeerks probably know that," Daria said. "Even if the Yeerks didn't set this up, we would either have to go on anonymously—making us seem even _less_ credible—or tip the Yeerks off to who we are."

Jodie nodded slowly. "Daria has a point."

"Yeah," I agreed, a bit boggled—sometimes Daria could think through things faster than I could keep up with, and she always worked best when it required assuming the worst in people. "And anyway, we already _have_ a plan. We attack the Yeerks directly. Find this Yeerk Pool, take it down and rescue Trent."

"Assuming we can find it," Jodie added wearily. She looked around at each of us, sighing. "We don't even really know what we're looking for. Right?"

I looked away. "Not really."

"And this could be dangerous," she continued. "So I say we split up into two groups, so that we can cover more ground while still having backup if we need it. That sound okay?"

"I would be happy to work with any of you lovely ladies," Upchuck said, wiggling his eyebrows.

"I volunteer to _not_ take Upchuck," Daria said.

"I was actually thinking you and Jane should work with Quinn," Jodie said, glancing at us a bit uneasily. "She knows the layout better than you two…but well, I guess that's not that important."

"I don't think I need to go with _anyone._ And I definitely don't want to be seen with any of you losers! No offense, Jodie."

"Oh, no. Daria and I aren't letting you go off on your own for a shopping spree."

"Hey! I—"

We argued for the next few minutes, but in the end Jodie and Upchuck went to explore the east side of the mall while Daria, Quinn and I sulked over to the west, agreeing to meet back with them around five.

"And be careful," Jodie said as we parted. "Just find the place. Do _not_ try to actually do anything until we know the situation." She gave me a look as she said that. I scowled; I was determined to destroy this place, but I wasn't an idiot.

We wandered, barely speaking, for the next hour. I quickly realized that Jodie was right—we really _didn't_ have any idea what we were looking for. I tried to keep my eyes out for suspicious people, but what was suspicious? People strolled around, window-shopped, came and went from stores…we checked out the music store and a toy store, even snooped around in the women's bathroom for a bit, but couldn't really find anything.

Daria sighed. "Where next?"

Quinn looked up from her sulking and suddenly pointed. "Over there," she announced, and headed for the nearest store.

It was Cashman's Department Store. Daria facepalmed. "Quinn—"

We raced in after her. She was already halfway to Junior Five—we caught her when she had stopped to look through a rack of bathing suits.

"Quinn, what are you doing? We told you, we're on saving-the-world business right now!"

"And this is _part_ of that business," Quinn said haughtily, before making a face at a bikini and putting it back in its place.

"What are you talking about? You're just browsing through bathing suits!"

"Jodie said that she found a way to…_morph_ tight clothes—we might as well get some while we're here."

Daria crossed her arms. "And you don't already have something like that at home?"

"Do _you?_ Either of you?"

"As much as I hate morphing naked, I think you need to rethink your priorities. We're supposed to be—"

"_Ugh,_ there's no way I'm letting Upchuck see me in this!" Quinn had already moved to another rack. "What we need is tights or leotards or something. Form-fitting, but not _too_ form-fitting."

I took a deep breath, trying very hard not to pick up the nearest mannequin and start beating Quinn over the head with it. Daria sighed. "And Quinn stops for a quick dip in de Nile."

"What are you talking about?"

"She doesn't want to be a part of this. But since we're forcing her, she's decided to focus on the one part of this doesn't remind her of how we're all probably going to die." She looked away. "Come on. Let's at least look around while she browses."

We wandered away from Quinn, pretending to look through the clothes while actually spying on everyone around us. Again, nothing suspicious—a middle-aged woman suggesting an outfit to her daughter, a gaggle of girls disappearing into dressing room #8, a saleswoman marking down some blouses…we were never going to find the Yeerk Pool, I realized. How could we when we had no idea where to look?

"And what do we do when we find it, anyway?" I wondered. Daria and I exchanged a glance. It was the first time I had forced myself to confront that issue. "I mean, we destroy this place, and maybe the Yeerks can't infest any more people…but how will that help Trent?"

"I don't know," she admitted. "But it'll hurt the Yeerks. And if we hurt the Yeerks…don't worry. We'll figure out something."

"Yeah," I said uncertainly.

I looked away, staring around the store again. The saleslady stopped marking down clothes and returned to the service desk. An older man disappeared into one of the dressing rooms.

I frowned. "What's an old guy doing in Junior Five?" I wondered. "He wasn't even carrying any clothes."

"And wait—he went into dressing room #8," Daria said. "Didn't some girls just go in there a second ago? Did you notice them come out?"

"No," I said slowly.

We looked at each other for a moment. Quinn reappeared beside us.

"Okay, I found a couple different outfits that will work for _me_—mostly leotards, that sort of thing—and I thought _this_ would look alright on you, Daria—the vertical stripes should help since you're sort of, um, 'thinly-challenged,' and Jane, this color should look good on you—well, as good as anything, I guess, it fits your red and black pattern—"

"You realize that ideally, nobody else will see us in these things, right?"

"But thanks, let me try it on," I said through gritted teeth, grabbing the outfit from her hand and stalking over to the dressing rooms.

"Jane—what—"I knocked on dressing room #8 a bit harder than necessary. The door creaked open; nobody was inside.

I released a breath I hadn't even realized I was holding. "It wasn't even locked."

"Well, of _course_ not," Quinn muttered as I stepped inside and began to glance around the small space, with its graffitied walls and old, spotty mirror. "The lock on dressing room 8's been broken forever—that's why they reserve it for the unpopular people."

"Well, Daria and I just saw a bunch of people disappear when they walked in here."

"Huh? What are you…"

Quinn's eyes widened when she realized what we were saying. I spun around, examining every inch of the walls. "Where did they _go?_ Maybe the Yeerks just have some sort of—teleporter or something?"

"But Ms. Li mentioned a tunnel, right?"

"Yeah…" I sighed wearily, then looked at the others. "We need to see what the Controllers did, though."

"Stake it out?"

"You can't," Quinn said simply. "The only—_morph_ any of us has is a cat. People are going to notice that in a dressing room."

"Yeah." I thought for a moment. "Wait…aren't we near a pet store?"

* * *

"A _lizard?_"

"It was the best I could find on short notice," I muttered, heading back into Junior Five.

We headed for dressing room #1, locking the door securely. Quinn shoved the clothes she had picked for me into my hands. "Here—change into this first."

"Quinn—"

"Look, do you want to test this, or do you want to take a chance of winding up naked in front of Upchuck later?"

I rolled my eyes, but changed into the clothes she had handed me. Aside from the fact that the three of us could barely move in the tight space, the leotard-and-shorts combo turned out to be uncomfortably tight. Also, it looked ridiculous, even if the color pattern was kind of alright.

I took a deep breath. "Okay, my first time leaving the class Mammalia. Wish me luck."

I concentrated, imagining the lizard from the pet store. After a moment I felt the familiar falling sensation, and suddenly the dressing room didn't feel quite so crowded. I stared at my shrinking arm and saw patterns of scales emerging on my skin, continuing onto the sleeves and front of my clothes as they became part of me. I was turning green—

"Oh, I can't watch," Quinn moaned, covering her face.

My face reshaped, my spine expanded, and a moment later I was on my belly on the floor, held up by four stubby legs, fully lizard.

And then a giant was bending down to reach for me.

_AGH!_ my lizard brain screamed. _RUN!_

I scurried. But I could barely see! My sight didn't make any sense, and all the colors were wrong—I tried to run but the giant grabbed me, lifting me into the air. I raced down her arm, trying to escape—

"Jane! _Jane!_ Snap out of it!"

What? I froze, forcing the lizard part of my brain down; I realized where I was, and that the giant about to eat me was really only Daria. Oh—sorry, I said sheepishly. These animal instincts are hard to fight at first.

"Well, stay focused. Are you okay?"

Yeah. Except these eyes really suck. I couldn't make my vision focus—the eyes were on opposite sides of my head, one looking left, the other looking right. I felt dizzy just trying to make out Daria's face.

"Well, do your best to see what's happening, okay?" She paused. "I'm going to try to put you on the wall now."

Okay.

I stuck to the wall. I took a few tentative steps. They felt unbelievably awkward—walking in one direction, with each of my eyes looking another way, constantly expecting gravity to suddenly remember I existed and drop me to the floor.

There was a slight space between each dressing room wall and the actual wall of the building; I was able to slip through easily, counting each room I passed. Dressing room #5...dressing room #6...dressing room #7...

I came to a stop, hanging on the wall above the mirror of dressing room #8. I climbed up higher where I hopefully wouldn't be noticed. I waited. After a few minutes I began to worry—I only had two hours before I would be stuck in morph, though of course Daria and Quinn would get me before then.

The dressing room door opened, and two boys came in. My tongue shot out instinctively, tasting the scent of the wall and the room's two human inhabitants (which was gross, by the way). The lizard immediately wanted to run, but I forced down its instincts, trying to remain perfectly still. I suddenly wished I was a chameleon.

"…the door doesn't even lock?"

"If it did, how could someone use the entrance after us? Let's just hurry up before any humans notice."

"How does it go?"

"First the medium sized spot…then the big one, then the little one…"

I could barely make out the younger boy—he couldn't have been older than twelve—standing in front of the mirror. Suddenly I heard a low rumble beneath my feet. I resisted the urge to run again.

The mirror had swung open like a door. The two boys disappeared through it.

And just as the mirror-door closed, I heard a very faint, very distant scream.

* * *

Jodie took a deep breath, held it, and then slowly exhaled. "Wow. I have to admit, I was kind of hoping none of us were going to find anything."

"Got that right," Daria muttered.

The five of us were back at the food court, this time inconspicuous in the dinner rush. Quinn had her face down, her arms crossed tightly over her chest. Upchuck had been staring with horrified fascination as I told them about our find.

"So what are we going to do?" Jodie wondered.

"We have to go down there," I said instantly. The others stared at me. "I heard that scream," I said simply. "They're down there, forcing slugs into people's brains right now. And stopping the Yeerks is the only hope I have of freeing my brother."

"And the terms of our suicide pact say that I'm obliged to follow her," Daria muttered.

Everybody turned to Quinn. I was expecting her to whine, but she just glared, defiant.

"We'd all get killed," she said darkly. "Just like the Andalite. And maybe your brother, too."

"Not if we go when he's not there," I countered. "We could—"

"I don't think we can do _anything_ yet," Jodie interrupted, looking around at all of us. "I mean, we found the entrance, but right now, the only morphs we have are a fish, a cat, a lizard and a bird."

"I also have a rat," Upchuck added, smirking. "From the construction site. That's how I got away in the first place."

"Upchuck can turn into vermin. How appropriate."

"The point is, if we're going to actually attack the Yeerks, we need something a _bit_ more impressive. Nothing we have now is going to stand any chance against a Hork-Bajir, let alone Visser Three. I say that after school tomorrow, we take the bus to the city and go to the zoo."

Upchuck's grin widened. "Excellent idea! I—"

"That's a good idea, in theory," I said, frowning. "But it's not like we can just go up to the lion cage and start petting them through the bars."

"Yeah, that's the problem."

"Well, the staff have to have some way to access the animals," Daria noted. "Like a back entrance."

"A prescient point, my pretty. As it turns out—"

"Well, what are we supposed to do? Dress up like zookeepers and sneak in?" Quinn demanded.

"Well, we could—""Maybe we could sneak in by morphing? Hmm…do you think we have to be human when we acquire the DNA, or—"

"_Would you ladies please listen to me for one second?_"

Everybody jumped and spun around. Upchuck blinked as though surprised by his own outburst. He tugged on his collar and cleared his throat sheepishly. "_Ahem…_as I was saying…my mother is a vet at the city zoo. I can arrange for all of us to get in, no problem."

"…Oh," Jodie said after a long pause. "That'll work."

Daria leaned over to me. "Upchuck's mom has experience herding sick animals. Again, how appropriate.


	8. The Zoo

School on Monday was pretty normal—quiz in first period, sub in third, lunch. An evil alien invader burst in during sixth period, but she left peacefully after asking for bake sale volunteers.

Daria, Jodie, Upchuck and I met at the bus stop after school. For a while we thought Quinn was going to skip out on us, but she showed up just in time to avoid missing the bus. She had a sour and slightly green look on her face.

We spent most of the ride in silence. I had become as paranoid as Daria—I kept glancing around at the other passengers, wondering if any of them could secretly be Controllers trying to eavesdrop. Finally I took out my notebook and began to doodle as best I could. Daria glanced over my shoulder.

"Lions…tigers…bears. Oh my. Thinking about what you want?"

"Sort of," I admitted. I glanced back a seat, where Jodie was talking with Quinn about fashion just to keep her calm. "This is so weird, isn't it? I keep trying to decide what animal I want to turn into, then stop and realize what the hell, I'm trying to decide _what animal I want to turn into?_"

"_You're_ freaked out? At least you've done this before."

"Yeah. You and Quinn aren't even full-fledged Animorphs yet."

"'Animorph?' …No. I'll risk my life to save Trent, but I draw the line at picking a team name."

"I like it!" Upchuck called from the seat in front of us. Daria kicked it in response.

A few minutes later we were paying at the ticket line. "Now, you're sure there's not going to be a problem getting us around?" Jodie asked for the third time as Upchuck led us in.

"Not a problem in the world, my toothsome teammate. …Well, probably. If we run into security, I'll just say I'm here to see my mother. And given the time" he glanced at his watch "we'll have just missed her. The perfect plausible deniability!"

"And if someone questions _why_ you're bringing four other people to see your mom?" I wondered, arching an eyebrow.

"…Then I say that you all were just really excited to see the animals and they'll kick us out. And my mom will probably ground me."

"Excited. We can fake that, right Daria?"

"Sure. Go animals, rah-rah-rah."

We followed Upchuck to the back of the otter exhibit, where there was an inconspicuous door built into the artificial cliff. He held it open and bowed as the rest of us entered.

Inside was a long corridor with dirty white walls and numbered doors on both sides. It could have passed for a school hallway, except for the absence of lockers and an unpleasant musty smell.

"First stop is my mom's office," Upchuck mumbled as he led us down the hall. "If we're lucky, it should be empty…" He poked his head into one room, then motioned to us. "All clear."

We entered what looked like a doctor's office, except that aside from desks and an examination table there were also animal cages placed along the walls. Several bird cages were set on one table, and on the floor beside them, a wolf in a larger cage that nevertheless looked cramped.

There was also a pair of skunks on the counter. We gave them wide berth.

"Ah, aren't we lucky today!" Upchuck crowed as Jodie and I examined the birds, which squawked and batted their bandaged wings at us. "The zoo also takes in some wounded animals from the state park. Some of Lawndale's more local residents."

"That might be good, for birds at least," Jodie said thoughtfully, reaching through the bars to stroke a golden-brown falcon. "We'd probably be noticed flying around town as parrots."

Quinn looked up from the floor and spoke for the first time since we'd arrived, pointing at the largest bird. "Isn't that a bald eagle?"

"I believe so," Upchuck said. "And Jodie's friend here is a…peregrine falcon, I believe…the fasted animal in nature! In a dive, at least. And here we have another osprey, and I believe this poor creature is a red-tailed hawk."

Jodie had closed her eyes, her hand still on the peregrine falcon's feathers. For a moment the bird stopped moving, staring off into space. Quinn frowned.

"But wait—why would we want to turn into _sick_ animals?"

Daria sounded exasperated. "It's DNA, remember? It's like Jane's ears—unless one of these has a genetic disorder we should be fine."

I looked at the red-tailed hawk; it was standing on one leg, the other one ending at the knee. I frowned, reaching in to touch its wing; it went quiet like Jodie's.

Daria glanced nervously over at me. "So, what? We just touch them?"

"Touch them and concentrate," Jodie said simply. She removed her hand from the falcon; it remained frozen for a few seconds before moving again. "It seems to put them into some kind of a trance," she noted. "Even my fish stopped flopping around in my hands when I acquired it."

Daria and Quinn exchanged a reluctant glance, then reached into the last two changes. The eagle didn't seem to want Quinn to touch it. "_Ugh!_ It's not working!"

"Just be gentle," Jodie said. "It's probably afraid to let you touch its wing—try its head."

"It'll peck me!"

Daria had already finished acquiring the osprey before Quinn finally managed to get the eagle calm. She glanced over at the wolf. "Should one of us acquire _that?_"

"Seems like a good idea," Jodie said. "…So who wants to?"

"It's in a cage," I noted, motioning to its bandaged leg. "And I don't think it can move around enough to bite anyone."

Daria made a face, but then bent down and slowly reached for the wolf's side. It growled and watched her with wary eyes, but remained lying.

"Good boy…good boy…"

"Good _girl,_ actually. I think," Upchuck murmured. "A male would be larger. But it's hard to tell without."

"Upchuck? Stop talking." Daria grumbled, looking slightly pale.

We left the vet's office and headed down another hall. "Where to next?"

Upchuck opened his mouth to speak when I heard a whirring sound. He jumped as what looked like a golf cart appeared around the corner, driven by two middle-aged women in lab coats. The back of the cart was filled with sloshing buckets of I-don't-want-to-know-what. One of the women leaned out.

"Hey, you're Chuck, aren't you? Noreen's kid? Ha, haven't seen you in forever!"

Upchuck gave a little bow and a wave. "Lovely to see you again, Mrs. Sanders," he said, his tone as teasing as ever. The two women giggled to each other as they drove by.

Jodie exhaled. "That was close."

Upchuck dropped his unctuous smile. "We should be alright as long as we don't run into security," he muttered. "Now, let's see, what exhibits are we…aha!" He headed down a side corridor. "Big Marco."

"Pardon?"

"The zoo's new gorilla." He was grinning again as he pointed to a door. "The perfect fighting morph, really. Strong enough to tear somebody's head off if it wanted to, but docile enough to acquire without any risk."

"_Ewww!_ I don't want to turn into any smelly monkey," Quinn said.

I smirked. "A smelly primate, eh? Why don't _you_ take this one, Upchuck?"

He blinked, his pale face turning just a shade whiter. He cleared his throat. "Alright." He looked to the door, then back at us. "Do any of you have any food, perchance? Like some fruit?"

Jodie had an apple leftover from lunch, which Upchuck held tightly as he opened the door to the gorilla's pen. There was a second safety door behind it made of metal bars. Beyond it we could see an artificial rock formation that shielded us from the visitors' sight.

The gorilla, however, noticed us. He lumbered over, letting out soft snorting noses as he sniffed the air. Upchuck smiled nervously. The gorilla gave him a withering look before setting its eyes on the apple, which Upchuck held out through the bars.

The gorilla reached for the apple with its long arms—and they were _long,_ with fingers that looked as thick as Upchuck's skinny arm. It took the apple with surprising gentleness, bringing it close to it face to examine. It didn't seem to even notice as Upchuck reached out to touch its arm.

"See? Simple," he said as Big Marco's eyes fluttered. A moment later Upchuck withdrew his hand and hastily closed the door.

"So that's a gorilla for you and a wolf for Daria," Jodie mused. "What else can we get?"

"There's plenty to choose from. What might you ladies be interested in?"

"Well, if I _have_ to do this, and I'm still not saying I will, I want to turn into something cute," Quinn said. "How about a dolphin?"

"I don't think Flipper's going to be much use in a fight, Quinn."

"Well, this Yeerk place is a _pool,_ right? So we need something that will be able to swim!"

"Quinn, we're not actually going to go _in_ the pool." Jodie paused. "I think."

"The Yeerks probably all pee in it anyway."

Upchuck put his arm around Quinn's shoulder; she stiffened and stared at him in inaudible outrage, but he didn't seem to notice. "My dear, surely a vixen as…_rrr, feisty _as yourself would appreciate something more…majestic. Powerful and fierce, but also beautiful and intelligent—"

I opened my mouth to speak, but Jodie stepped on my foot. Upchuck snapped his fingers. "I know just the thing!"

* * *

"_An elephant?_"

"_Loxodonta africana._ The African bush elephant." Upchuck clearly expected us to be impressed. "Biggest land animal in the world! We're after firepower—baby, this is it!"

An elephant cautiously approached the doorway, which once again was hidden from zoo patrons by some clever landscaping. Its trink reached out to examine us, but it was too thick to fit through the bars. In fact I couldn't even see the elephant's whole body through the doorway—it was bizarre seeing something so big up close.

Quinn looked skeptical; Jodie gave her an encouraging smile. "This is a good choice for you. Like he said, it's majestic, and strong enough that not even one of those Hork-Bajir could take it down without a fight."

"I guess…"

Upchuck winked and patted the elephant's trunk through the bars. "See? She won't bite," he said, wheedling.

Quinn grimaced, then reached through the bars and touched the elephant's trunk. It took a moment for the creature to stay still—it kept poking and prodding at her hand—but eventually it grew calm. Quinn's face looked unreadable. "She _is_ kind of beautiful, I guess."

"How can you tell it's a 'she?'"

"I'm not checking."

"So how long do I have to hold it before it's…acquitted or whatever?"

"Acquired. And now should be long enough," Jodie said. Quinn withdrew her hand slowly and Upchuck closed the door to the elephant's enclosure. "So that's three of us down, two to go. What other big morphs do we have?"

"The entire animal kingdom is your oyster, ladies." Upchuck crossed his arms and leaned against the wall. "Any requests?"

"Well, I was thinking a rhino—but if we already have an elephant maybe we should diversify more? Do you have any ideas, Jane?"

I hesitated, thinking back to my earlier idea. "I don't know. A lion, maybe? Or a leopard? A panther? …Upchuck, what's the difference between a leopard and a panther?"

"Semantics. You see, in North America—"

"Hey! What are you kids doing back here?"

We spun around. An older man in a brown uniform was standing at the end of the hall, glaring at us.

Upchuck's face had suddenly gone very white and much less smug. "That's security," he squeaked.

"Okay, we need a cover story," Jodie whispered out of the corner of her mouth. "What do we—"

"_RUN!_"

For the first time since I'd met her, Quinn seemed to have the right idea. She, Daria, Upchuck and I took off.

"Hey! Get back here!"

The corridor formed a T up ahead of us. I heard Jodie jogging to catch up. "Split up! Like at the construction site!" she yelled.

Daria and I ran left; the others ran right. The path slanted downward before leveling off, where it got dark and narrow, giving the impression of an underground tunnel.

We ran for about fifty feet before Daria started panting. "Did we—lose him?"

"I think so," I said, slowing down. "That guy didn't look very fast, and he probably went the other way. We should be safe—"

"_HEY!_"  
Two more guards appeared ahead of us. And then the original guard appeared behind us.

Daria groaned. "Unless he called for backup, of course."

All three guards were running toward us. I looked around wildly. We were right next to a door.

"This way!" I said, grabbing Daria by her wrist.

"What? Jane, we don't know where this—"

I ran out into the sunlight, slamming the door behind us. We were in a grassy field behind a cluster of trees—Daria and I ducked behind the nearest one, letting out a sigh of relief.

"Are they coming after us?" Daria asked, pressing her body against the bark.

I cautiously looked around the trunk. "No."

"Well, why not?"

"I don't know." I glanced around. "Look—people." I pointed to a ledge about a hundred feet away. It was about thirty feet up—apparently this exhibit was in some kind of large pit. "I don't think they can see us, though." All I saw was grass, bushes and a few birds. "Where are we?"

"Oh, _now_ you stop the wonder."

"I don't see any animals…"

Daria was still panting; she sat down on the ground to rest.

Something growled.

We both froze.

"…Jane?"

"Yeah?"

"Please tell me I just sat on a peculiar mound of growling grass."

I looked, slowly. My head instantly shot forward again. "Nope. Not grass."

"Then please tell me it is a very large otter."

"It's a tiger."

She jumped. The tiger looked up at us. It growled again. It sprawled out lazily on the ground, and now looked somewhere between indifferent and irritated.

"…What do we do? Do we run? Or will that just make it attack us?"

"I don't know. It's lying down. It—okay, wait. We both acquired bird morphs, right? What if we fly away? That'll get us past the guards too."

"And if it attacks us while we're twisted, flightless monstrosities?"

"I don't—wait. Okay, I have an idea." I gave Daria a look. "Get ready."

"Ready for what?"

I swallowed and slowly bent to the ground, turning toward the tiger. I stared at me. It was definitely aggravated now. More than that it looked bored, but that only made me more nervous—I had a nasty feeling it knew that it could tear the two of us apart with very little effort. I had an unpleasant mental image of my cats playing with a dead rat they had found once.

I reached down and touched its side. Underneath the white, orange and black fur I could feel hard muscle tensing. I took a deep breath. After a moment the tiger did too.

Its eyes were closed. My hand tingled as I acquired it.

"Heh. Lady and the tiger, all in one package," I muttered.

"I hope that doesn't mean you're going to start ordering your pizza with entrails."

"Daria, start morphing."

"But—"

"Just do it!" I hissed through gritted teeth. The tiger still seemed calm; I prayed that this acquiring trance didn't have some kind of a time limit.

She took a deep breath and closed her eyes. A moment later she began to shrink, her face contorting outward into a beak. She made a horrified sound halfway between a moan and a squawk as her jacket bunched up around her.

((Jane? Can you hear this?))

"Yeah."

"_Whoa._ You sound loud. What about you?"

"I'm going to keep my hand on it while I start morphing. Then it should stay in a trance for a few seconds after we try to fly away."

((Can you do that? Morph while you're still acquiring?))

"Heh. Don't know. Let's find out."

The answer was no.

I was still shrinking when the tiger began to stir from its slumber. My hand—now more of a wing—was still on it its side, but the tiger suddenly drew away, snarling. Daria was fully bird now and flapped her wings in panic. I stumbled back, falling to the ground as my legs suddenly shrank and clawed talons appeared in my oversized sneakers.

((Quick, Jane! Finish!))

((I'm trying! I—))

The door to the habitat flew open. The security guards were led by a man in a lab coat, holding what I assumed to be a tranquilizer gun.

I cursed mentally. ((No time. Gotta fly now!))

((But we don't know how to—!))

((Just try!))

I was ninety percent bird now, but had to finish shrinking before I could feel my wings grab the air correctly. I wormed my way out of my normal clothes—the tiger suddenly leapt! I squawked instinctively and dove out of the way, finally managing to flutter off the ground—

((Whoa—whoa—!))

Daria and I rose higher into the sky as the zoo guards dodged the tiger, looking wildly around the pen for two teenage girls. I wondered vaguely what they would think when they found two piles of clothes and no half-eaten bodies, but could hardly focus on the issue as we flew out of the pit, hitting a sudden burst of warm air that sent us soaring up into the sky.

((Oh my—Jane, we're _flying._ We're _flying,_ Jane!))

((Yeah.)) I laughed mentally—I could feel the warm air filling my wings, feel the wind fluttering through my feathers. We zoomed ten feet above the zoo patrons' heads, but we might as well have been right above them—my eyes were like telescopes, my ears could pick up every word of their conversations. It was incredible!

((How are we doing this?)) Daria wondered. ((How do we—I don't know, turn or whatever?))

((Bird brain.))

((Dunderhead.))

((No, I mean, it's like when I was a cat or a lizard—you have the animal's brain, so you have all its instincts. Just try not to think about it and the bird should do the flying for you.))

We flew around for another few minutes. Just when I was getting over the thrill and wondering what to do, Daria said ((Hey, look over there. To the right, by the reptile house.))

I spotted Jodie, Quinn and Upchuck, mingling with the crowd and trying to look inconspicuous. I pulled back but remained hovering in the air, letting the warm air lift me up higher. ((Hey, guys. Guys, over here.))

Quinn and Upchuck both jumped. I snickered. ((Up here. Daria and I are in bird morph.))

((No—don't look, it'll make you look suspicious!)) The three were already scanning the sky wildly for us. Jodie managed to spot us, though, and pointed us out to the others.

((You realize they don't have any way to respond to us, right?)) I asked.

((Hell, you're right. And what are we going to do? I was wearing that stupid morphing outfit under my clothes, and I _think_ it morphed with me, but we can't go around the zoo dressed in leotards and tights.))

((Yeah.)) I focused my thoughts back on the others. ((Okay, listen—Daria and I don't have any reasonable clothes, so we're gonna have to fly home. Are you guys gonna be alright? Just—nod or shake your head.))

Jodie hesitated, then nodded, turning to Quinn so it would look less suspicious to onlookers. Daria turned to me.

((We're _flying?_ All the way back to _Lawndale?_))

((Well…flying has to be faster than the bus, right? If we just follow the highway we should get there in plenty of time to avoid the two hour time limit..))

((You know, it would have been a _lot_ easier just to let zoo security kick us out.))

((Oh, be quiet, bird-brain,)) I muttered, letting mine adjust my tail feathers as we swooped off toward the exit.


	9. The Yeerk Pool

Fake-Trent made frozen pizza for dinner. Not exactly chicken cordon bleu, I know, but the real Trent never made anything more complicated than a bowl of cereal—at least not since the Great '97 Fish Stick Flood. I wondered if I would have minded normally, or if the fear of the food being poisoned was just messing with my head.

"Where are you going?" I asked, trying to sound innocent as not-Trent rose from his chair, put his plate in the sink (damn, this Yeerk was a _terrible_ actor) and started to pull on his coat.

"Out. Gotta do something for work. I'll just be a couple of hours."

I tried to remain stoic as I took a deep breath. "Too bad. I was hoping that we could stay in and watch some TV or something." Yeah, right, because I so wanted to bond with my brother's new slave-master. But on the other hand, my stomach was twisting itself into knots at the thought of where he was _really _going…and the thought of me and the others following.

"Sorry. Can't. But you know, if you joined The Sharing we could spend time together even when I'm on the clock." He flashed me another horribly phony grin. "There's another meeting coming up this week, you know."

"Hmm." I dropped my eyes to my dinner, picking at a stray glob of sauce. "I dunno, maybe." _We'll have to see if Hell freezes over first,_ I thought.

"Well, think about it." Trent paused, looking at his watch. "I gotta go. See you later, okay?"

"Okay," I said. I didn't look up from my food as he swept out of the room, nor when I heard the front door open and close or his car sputter away.

I tried to finish eating, but my appetite was gone. I rose from my seat and slowly went to get the phone. I called Daria's number. She answered on the first ring.

"Hello?"

"Trent left," I said simply.

I heard Daria take a deep breath. "Okay. I'll be over soon to start on homework." That was a lie, just cover for the spies she was sure were listening; we would meet up at the mall. I licked my lips.

"Is Quinn coming?"

"She's…hesitant. But I think I can strong-arm her into studying with us."

"Alright. See you soon."

I hung up and went upstairs to get my running shoes.

Running has always been a stress-breaker for me. Everything about it just soothes me—the rhythmic sound of my sneakers on the sidewalk, the feel of my muscles tightening and relaxing, the cool night air slamming into my skin. Normally the rush of endorphins was enough to quiet whatever thoughts were holding my mind hostage, but it was a long run to the mall and I had a lot to think about.

What was going to happen tonight?

What was this Yeerk pool anyway, what were we going to find?

Would we manage to destroy this thing? Would we manage to free Trent?

Was Quinn right? Was I really going to have to—

I closed my eyes and shook my head, turning to go the long way around the old construction site, the place where this whole horrible mess had first started—or at least, where I had first heard about it. Who knew how long this invasion had already been going on, anyway? How long Trent and God only knows how many others were slaves hidden behind their own faces?

I came to a stop in front of the mall, bending down to catch my breath and ignoring the people who gave me odd looks. It included the people in line for the _Sick, Sad World_ van—I wondered how long it was going to be there, and how many people were going to tell them lies about the very same thing that had really happened to us. I wondered what was going to happen to them.

Damn. I really needed to find a better way to shut my mind up.

I went inside, trying to ignore the fact that I was covered in sweat and probably stank, and headed for Cashman's. Upchuck had already arrived, looking awkward as he pretended to search through the racks. I saddled up beside him without a word; he turned to me and looked like he was about to say something, but I gave a look and even he realized I wasn't in the mood for conversation.

Jodie arrived a moment later, giving a faint greeting as she joined us. Daria and Quinn followed, the former looking a bit green, the latter with her jaw clenched. I had a feeling there had been some serious drama at Schloss Morgendorffer tonight.

It was a moment before any of us spoke. "So. Are we really doing this?"

"No," Quinn said immediately.

"Yes," I replied.

Our eyes met. I tried to send her the same look I had used on Upchuck. It was dulled by remembering what she had said back at the lake, about what this battle might mean if Trent was fighting on the Yeerks' side.

Jodie looked like she was about to speak, but Upchuck spoke up first. "Quinn doesn't have to go if she doesn't want to." He paused, looking nervously. "In fact—_gulp_—maybe we have the wrong strategy here, my comely compatriots. Perhaps _I_ should go down there myself to scout things out, while the four of you—"

"Uh-uh," I interrupted. "No way am I leaving Trent in danger so that _you_ can play Conan the Barbarian."

"Hey, I—"

"Look, can we just get this over with?" Quinn said a bit shrilly, causing a salesperson to glance over at us. Jodie immediately shushed us, then took a deep breath.

"We're going to _look,_" she said, glancing at me. "We don't even know what we're up against. If we see a way to get your brother out, we take it. If we see a way to destroy this place, we do it. If we see trouble, we get the hell out. And Quinn…or anyone…nobody's going to force you to go."

"Yes I am," Daria said, interrupting Quinn before she could speak.

"Me too," I agreed. Jodie and Quinn both glared.

I tried to look straight ahead as we headed for Dress Room #8, silently praying that nobody noticed us. It wasn't the normal people I was worried about—I didn't want any Yeerks to be able to identify us later. The five of us crowded inside, Upchuck holding the door closed behind us. Quinn yelped as I accidentally stepped on her foot.

"Okay—so how do we do this?"

"The Controllers I saw touched the mirror—" I tried to squeeze past Jodie and Daria, making my way to the dirty glass. There were three prominent spots on the right edge. "I think they said—press the medium spot—then the big one…"

I felt kind of stupid as I pressed on the surface—the spots didn't light up or make any sort of noise like a button to indicate they were anything more than normal spots, but I pressed each in the order I remembered. Suddenly I heard a click—we all jumped as the mirror slid aside like an automatic door at the supermarket, revealing a dark tunnel with stairs descending downward.

We shared a look. Jodie swallowed. "Here we go, then."

"Yeah…"

I went in first, since I was closest to the mirror, bowing my head to make it through the opening. The air inside was unpleasantly cool, yet stuffy, and there was only a faint light from the ceiling every ten feet or so. The path was narrow and there were no railings, so I held the stony wall for some slight feeling of security. I could hear noises coming from below us. Sounds of activity. Sounds like waves on the beach. Sounds like screams.

The others followed me in; the door slid shut behind us.

We crept single-file down what turned out to be a twisting staircase that seemed to go on forever—we went deeper and deeper into the earth, and with each step my heart seemed to beat a tiny bit faster. "Some advanced aliens," Daria muttered. "You'd think they could at least have put in an escalator."

I tried to laugh, but the sound came out more like an unpleasant shiver.

After several long minutes the tunnel finally began to widen; I felt the others draw closer behind me. "I think we're almost there."

"I hope so," Upchuck mumbled.

Suddenly the tunnel opened up into a cavern. A really, _really_ big cavern.

I froze. I mean literally, I could _not_ move anymore, not even when Jodie walked into me from behind. My eyes widened. Upchuck made a strangled gasp.

"Oh my…" Jodie whispered.

The Yeerk pool wasn't underneath the Lawndale Mall. The Yeerk pool was underneath _all of Lawndale._

Just this main cavern was huge, bigger than a football stadium, maybe two, a massive dome carved into the rock underneath the town. There were actual _buildings_ built around the walls, sheds and warehouses, and doors cut into the stone that must have led to other areas. And there were more staircases, at least three more that I could see. Were those more secret entrances? How many were there in this town?

And there were Controllers—mostly humans, but also hulking Hork-Bajir and slithering Taxxons, strolling around casually like a bunch of pedestrians on main street. There must have been hundreds just here that we could see—how many more were in those buildings, or through those doors, or in other parts of the base?

"_This_ is what you want to fight?" Quinn hissed—she turned to glare at the whole group, but her eyes lingered on Daria and me. "You really think we can fight _all this?_"

"_Shhh!_ Be quiet!" Jodie snapped, but her voice sounded shaky. "We have to blend in. As far as they know we're Controllers, so just keep moving and act like all this is normal."

"Right. Normal," Daria muttered as we stepped away from the stairs and into the massive cavern. "Just cut through nine circles and we'll be right back in Purgatory."

But Quinn was right, I thought dimly, as I forced my legs to carry me past a collection of Hork-Bajir guards carrying Dracon beams in their clawed hands. I didn't know what we were going to find here, just that we had to get rid of it, blow it up, rescue Trent—but I had never imagined all this.

We walked for what must have been about a block before Upchuck raised his hand to point, then quickly lowered it and gave a vague nod of his head. "What's that?" he muttered out of the corner of his mouth.

Daria took a deep breath. "My guess? The reason they call this place 'the Yeerk pool.'"

We drew closer. It was like a perfectly round lake in the center of the cavern. The water—if it _was_ water—looked more like sewage, and it was constantly churning as small shapes moved beneath the surface. The sight made my stomach churn too.

Then I looked up toward the far side of the pool and _really_ started to feel were two metal piers extended out into the center of the pool. The first one had a line of Controllers—mostly humans, but a couple of Hork-Bajir and Taxxons too—calmly waiting like swimmers at a diving board. Particularly large Hork-Bajir guards were waiting at the end of the pier.

I watched, transfixed, as a woman in a business suit stepped forward and crouched down at the end of the pier. The Hork-Bajir took her arms to keep her from falling—she turned her head to the side, and I saw something emerge from her ear. I heard Quinn shudder even as goose bumps rose on the back of my own neck.

The Yeerk dropped from the woman's head and plopped down into the pool.

And immediately the woman started scream.

"_NO! LET ME GO! LET ME GO!_"

The Hork-Bajir grabbed the woman by the arms and half-dragged, half-carried her past the line and down the pier, where a dozen cages stood, crowded with ten or more people each. Some of the prisoners were screaming, some were crying—

"_You can't keep doing this to me! You can't—_"

The Hork-Bajir opened the nearest cage and threw the woman in roughly before slamming the door shut again. Then they calmly walked back down the pier, where the next Controller in line bent down to repeat the process. I looked away, trying to ignore his screams. "What are they doing?" I whispered, barely able to speak as my throat seemed to close up.

"They're—the Yeerks—are going back into the pool," Jodie muttered. "At least…for a while…"

I followed her gaze—another set of Hork-Bajir guards threw open the door to a different cage, grabbing a human from inside. It was a guy about our age—hell, maybe he went to our school—who struggled and screamed as the aliens easily dragged him down the pier and shoved his head into the sludge. He continued to kick and thrash his arms for a moment, but finally went still—the Hork-Bajir pulled him out just as another slimy Yeerk disappeared into his ear. The guy rose a moment later and walked calmly back down the pier. The Hork-Bajir went to pick out another human…

I tore my eyes away. "So the Yeerks leave the park but get their flippers stamped for later," Daria muttered. "But why?"

Upchuck swallowed. "…I have a thought. Jane's brother said that he was going to do a shift here after he 'fed.' I thought that was just alien-speak for stopping at Cluster Burger on the way over…but maybe _this_ is what he meant?"

"So, what? They're…eating something in there?" Quinn muttered skeptically.

"Stupid aliens. Don't they know you're supposed to wait thirty minutes before swimming?"

"Who cares why they're doing it? The point is, this gives us a chance." I could suddenly see a glimmer of hope again. I pointed to the cages. "Those people don't have Yeerks in their heads, and by now Trent is probably one of them. I say we bust them out and get the hell out of here."

"_Are you crazy?_" Quinn said. "We can't get that many people out of here! We—_hey!_"

I was already running off—around the edge of the pool, toward a metal shed that would have looked normal in anybody's backyard. It was about fifty feet away from the cages—

I could hear the others running after me. I was already around the side of the shed before they caught up.

"Jane! What the—_hell _are you doing?" Daria panted.

"Rescuing Trent!"

"But—"

"You said earlier that you would help me with this, Daria! We have to—"  
"Jane, remember what we said earlier?" Jodie sounded uncharacteristically off-kilter. "We rescue Trent if we can, but this place is _way_ bigger than any of us thought. There are too many Controllers here, there's no way—"

"I didn't come all this way just to leave him here!" Even I could tell how unhinged my voice sounded. Daria winced. Upchuck tried to step between me and Jodie.

"Now, ladies—"

"_Hey!_"

We jumped and spun around. There were three Controllers—a human and two Hork-Bajir—approaching us from the other side of the shed, opposite the pool. The human was carrying one of those Dracon beam weapons they had used at the construction site.

"Who are you? What are you doing over there?" he demanded.

Jodie and I looked at each other. Daria and Upchuck's eyes had gone wide. Quinn was looking around wildly.

That seemed to confirm the Controller's suspicions. He motioned to the Hork-Bajir. "Get them!"

The Hork-Bajir rushed forward. I turned around to run. And at that moment I realized three things.

One, Quinn was at the back of the group, nearest the Yeerk pool—which meant that the Controllers couldn't see her past the rest of us.

Two, her skin had suddenly turned slate gray.

And three, she was getting very, very large.


	10. Visser Three

Quinn's ears were becoming giant, flat and papery. Her nose melted into putty, then stretched into a long hose that just kept growing and growing. Her clothes ripped—she fell onto her hands and knees—

_Agh!_ I don't like this, I don't like this—

One of the Hork-Bajir screamed something in Hork-Bajir-ese. The human just gaped at the weird, twisted, half-elephant _thing_ that he only now noticed.

Quinn, twelve feet tall and still growing, let out a bellow and rushed forward. The rest of us jumped out of the way as she chased the three Controllers, sending one Hork-Bajir flying with a swat of her massive head.

"_Raaaggghhh!_" the alien screamed.

_Aaaggghhh!_ Quinn cried, sounding just as terrified.

The four of us all looked at each other. Then, not quite consciously, the rest of us turned to Jodie for guidance. She bit her lip, face going pale. "Morph!" she cried finally.

I took a deep breath and closed my eyes. My mind was racing, but I tried to shut out my fear and anger and confusion and focus on the tiger from the zoo.

I'd already been a cat; a tiger wasn't all that different in the basic design. I felt my nose flatten, my ears reshape themselves, my spine extend as a tail snaked its way out of my pants. But there was one kind of major difference: a tiger is _big._

My skinny arms suddenly pumped with muscles, a bizarre sensation that made me feel like my skin was about to bust at the same time that it was sprouting itchy orange fur. Claws erupted out of my sneakers, which were already struggling to hold in my growing feet. My shirt ripped, more muscles appearing on my chest, my legs, my entire body. I could feel my teeth grow and twist into huge fangs powered by strong, powerful jaws.

Without thinking I let out a roar. It seemed to explode out of my mouth like thunder.

I can't even describe how I felt. My fear was gone! I was a _tiger!_ What puny little runt was even going to _dare_ to challenge me?

And I wasn't alone! Daria was a wolf now, large and fierce yet somehow puny compared to me, while Upchuck clenched his massive gorilla arms and Jodie, a grizzly bear, reared back with bristling fur. For just a moment my tiger mind was confused and scared, before human-Jane remembered: they were my friends. We were a menagerie of menacing mammals, and the two halves of my brain agreed: the Yeerks were _screwed._

There are more Hork-Bajir coming! Jodie cried.

There were about a dozen of them running toward the shed—I didn't even stop to think, I just _jumped,_ hitting the nearest one in the chest and sending it crashing to the ground. It let out a roar and swiped at me with its bladed arms—I twisted my head back, then swung my paws—_massive_ paws, they must have been bigger than a human's head!—and slashed it right across its face. Another Hork-Bajir leapt on me from behind—its blade connected with my back, ripping into my fur, but with a roar I spun around, biting and thrashing, not even thinking—

The ground shook—Quinn was coming back now, trumpeting her cry, and the Hork-Bajir were scattering. Her thought-speak voice still sounded panicked, though. What do we do now?

I bent my head almost to the ground, shaking it roughly as I tried to focus. Go for the cages! I cried. We have to save Trent and the others!

Upchuck led the way. A few of the Hork-Bajir guards near the cages scattered when they saw us coming, but a few raised their Dracon beams—Quinn let out another bellow as their blasts hit her in the side, then barreled down on them, while Daria headed for the piers—both lines were soon scattered as Controllers ran and guards lost a hold of their prisoners, who ran for cover—

The humans in the cages shrunk back as the rest of us approached. For a second I panicked, suddenly realizing that we didn't know how to get them out, only for Upchuck to reach forward and rip the lock off of the nearest cage. He opened the door, making a show of bowing like a doorman, which seemed to convince the captives that they could come out without worrying about us eating them.

He moved down to the next cage, then the next, and it was then that I finally spotted Trent, his tall frame and mess black hair standing out among the other ex-human-Controllers. I had to resist the urge to run forward and tackle him to the ground.

More Controllers! Daria suddenly cried, startling me from my thoughts. Upchuck, get the other cages—everyone else, we need to leave!

Everybody follow us! I could tell that Jodie was extending her thought-speak so that the prisoners could hear it too—she got down on all fours and started to run back the way we had come, and most of the freed humans and Hork-Bajir followed as Upchuck stayed behind to rip the last cage door free.

A swarm of Taxxons suddenly rushed at us, their lobster claws clicking, their massive teeth snapping—I heard one of the human prisoners scream a Taxxon body-slammed him, let out a roar as I saw its jaws around his arm, blood sprouting everywhere. Daria attacked the Taxxon—

"_WHOA!_"

I spun around—one of the bloated centipedes was headed for Trent. My legs sprang without thinking—I slashed!

Taxxons, it turns out, are kind of like water balloons filled with rotten hamburger. It took a single swipe of my claws to literally _burst_ the nearest one—its companions quickly leapt at it, gobbling up their brother's putrid guts. Quinn let out a horrified _EWWW!_ as she crushed half a dozen Taxxons like the giant bugs they were.

Trent blinked and looked up at me, an enormous tiger covered in alien guts looming inches from his face. He slowly raised his hands, eyes wide but his voice as low and detached as ever. "_Whoa._ Nice kitty."

I'm not sure what kind of reaction I was expecting, but that was just so—so [I]Trent/I, especially compared to the horrible act that the Yeerk had been putting on, that I burst out into mental giggles. I was about to say something, tell Trent who I was, when Jodie's voice was suddenly screaming in my head.

Everybody keep moving! We've got to get to the exit!

Upchuck punched an approaching Hork-Bajir with his huge fist, sending the monster flying. Ha, what's our hurry? We can just—

He stopped in mid-sentence. I felt an unexplained chill and followed his gaze.

Visser Three had just stepped out of the crowd of approaching Hork-Bajir-Controllers.

I should have just attacked him right then. One of us should have. It wasn't even that he _looked_ all that threatening—other than his tail his Andalite body just looked like a furry blue centaur. But there was something about him that made me draw back in terror—even my tiger brain, as fierce as it was, somehow sensed that this was a predator bigger and badder than it could ever hope to be.

Well, he said. What have we here?

A Taxxon slithered over to him from the crowd, making a string of noises halfway between hisses and whistles. Visser Three remained impassive, watching us with his four eyes.

This Taxxon fool says that you are wild animals. He wants to know if he and his brothers can eat you. He suddenly gave a silent chuckle. But _I_ know what you are. So, he said, taking a step closer. Not all of you Andalites died when I burned your ship in orbit.

He was silent for a moment while I absorbed that statement. Quinn sounded confused. What does he…?

He knows we're morphs, Jodie said suddenly. But think about it—he doesn't know that that Elfangor guy gave morphing powers to _humans._ He thinks we're more Andalites that came along with him or something.

I compliment you on getting this, Visser Three continued, oblivious to our private conversation. And your morphs—Earth animals, I assume?—are admittedly quite impressive. He suddenly began to grow taller. But you have accomplished nothing, he said as his fur began to disappear. Because I have collected morphs far, _far_ more dangerous than anything on _this_ little planet.

I took a step back; one of the freed prisoners, one who sounded like a child, screamed. Visser Three was getting taller and taller, and somehow even more creepy, he was growing extra arms, extra legs, extra _heads—_

I acquired this body from a moon shortly before its sun went nova, Visser Three mused. Like it?

He was even taller than Quinn in her elephant body. He had eight arms, eight legs, eight heads. It was bizarre and reptilian, so scary that even the Hork-Bajir-Controllers were edging away.

It's almost like some kind of…eight-headed dragon, Upchuck said fearfully.

Then one of Visser Three's head reared back, lunged forward, and shot a ball of fire out of its mouth. It exploded against a teenage girl we had just freed, who screamed as she fell to the ground and tried to extinguish the flames.

Correction, it's EXACTLY LIKE AN EIGHT-HEADED DRAGON!

RUN!

Animals and humans and Hork-Bajir roared and screamed and ran—Visser Three cackled in our minds. Yes, run! It makes a more challenging target!

A blast of fire exploded right where I had been a second before. Quinn let out a roar as another singed right through her ear.

GET TO THE STAIRS, GET TO THE STAIRS!

Save as many of the people as you can! Jodie screamed.

Upchuck swung his arms around and scooped up as many terrified humans as could fit his massive grasp, making a run for the stairs. Daria leapt at a Hork-Bajir, teeth sinking into its throat, only to cry out as a fireball hit her in the side. Quinn was in the lead, clearing a path through the Controllers with her bulk. She was almost at the stairs—

I can't fit! she suddenly screamed.

MORPH BACK! Daria cried, picking herself off the ground.

But—

Just do it!

Quinn began to shrink, running up the stairs on limbs that were three-fourths elephant but shrinking rapidly. The rest of us ran after her, but Visser Three was following! There were more Controllers in his way and he just didn't give a crap—humans and Hork-Bajir were trampled, Taxxons burst with a slash of his claws as he rushed at us, sending more fireballs that fell more and more of the people we were trying to save.

Upchuck was hit—he cried out and dropped the people he was carrying, only for a Hork-Bajir to leap at him and leave a gaping wound on his chest. Visser Three was right behind me—one of his heads snapped forward at me like a snake, but I managed to just jump away when—

"_Aagghh!_"

I recognized the voice instantly—I came to a stop, spinning around with feline agility to see one of Visser Three's heads whip around, hitting Trent right in the side. My brother went flying, crashing to the ground. He wasn't moving. The triumphant head roared.

So did my tiger brain.

[I]NO!/I

My leg muscles sprang, my claws extended as I sailed through the air—my teeth sank into Visser Three's nearest neck, a vile, alien taste filling my mouth, and I slashed and tore as the monster roared in pain—another head spun around and fired, a blast of flame right in my flank, and pain, unimaginable pain, exploded in my body. I roared and fell—the scent of burned fur and skin hit my nose, but I still thrashed and bit, even as Visser Three spun around—

JANE!

I'LL GET HER!

I couldn't even see straight through the pain, but I felt something grab me—I fought it, still crazy, as someone—I realized later that it must have been Upchuck—picked me up and began to drag my massive, injured body away.

NO! LET ME GO! WE HAVE TO GO BACK FOR TRENT!

I hate so say no to a lady, toots, but—

NO! NO!

Visser Three was still after us—Upchuck carried me up the stairs, dropped me, Visser Three was mere feet behind us, I had to run, up the tunnel—he had miscalculated, his huge morph couldn't fit through. The stairway narrowed quickly—Visser Three's heads shot up one blast more fire, snapping at us, but we ran as fast as we could as he struggled to climb any higher.

_I'll kill you all, Andalites!_ he screamed as we retreated, his visible heads all roaring. Run away now, it won't matter! _I'll kill you all!_

* * *

Everything between that and getting to Daria's house is kind of a blur, to be honest. I'm sure mall security remembers it a lot better than I do.

The five of us got out, alive. I think one or two freed Controllers managed to escape too, but if so we lost them in the confusion. That was the extent of our victory. As for blowing up the Yeerk pool…stopping the invasion…freeing Trent…

It was several hours later before I finally got up the nerve to try calling his cell phone.

_Ring…ring—click!_

"Hello?"

I took a deep breath.

"Hey, Trent. Hope I'm not bothering you at work—I was just wondering when you're gonna be home."

My brother's voice sighed wearily. "There was a…[I]problem/I here. To be honest I'm probably not going to be home until morning."

I felt my hopes melt; my arm was suddenly shaking. "Oh. That sucks."

"Yeah. Anyway, don't wait up or anything. I'll probably see you when you get home from school tomorrow. Okay?"

"Yeah. See you then," I said, my voice very small to my own ears. I hesitated. "Love you," I added weakly.

"Yeah. Love you too, Janie."

He hung up. Immediately I dropped the phone into my lap and felt tears well up in my eyes.

"Oh, no—Jane?"

I looked up at Daria, my vision blurry. "Well…he's alive, at least. He said—" I sniffled. "He said that there were 'problems at work.' I guess that's a good assessment of a _When Animals Attack_ set."

"So—he's definitely been…"

I nodded.

"Oh…uh, I'm sorry…"

I couldn't help it—I started to sob. I tried to stifle it—it was after midnight and Daria's parents didn't realize I was there—but it forced its way out, and without even thinking I collapsed against Daria's shoulder and began to cry into her clothes.

"It's—Jane, it's okay, it's okay." Daria reached up to pat me on the back. I knew Daria wasn't exactly a "huggy" person—neither was I, for that matter—but even awkward affection was a comfort at the moment.

"I just—I wanted to save him so bad, Daria," I whispered. "I just—kept trying to tell myself—"

"I know." She took a deep breath. "But don't worry, Jane. We _will_ get him back. We'll keep fighting the Yeerks until we find a way to save Trent. And, if we must, maybe even the rest of the planet too."

I chuckled, but it combined with another sob to turn into something closer to a hiccup. "You promise?"

"Yeah…I promise." She sounded like she was reading her own death sentence. Or all of ours.

"Thanks, _amiga._"

**END OF BOOK ONE**

* * *

**Author's Notes: **The final official chapter (though I may add a "bonus" in a few days). The big battle of the Yeerk pool! It goes...less than spectacularly. Of course.

Overall I'm not too happy with this story, to be honest. I'm not sure if I characterized everybody right, and overall this feels just like _Animorphs_ #1 with _Daria_ characters thrown in. I sort of wanted to change things a bit, but this felt like the best way to get all the necessary details thrown out. Hopefully the sequel will be better, since I intend to do a bit more playing with canon.

Hope you enjoyed!


	11. Epilogue

Scores of miles to the east and quite a bit downward a figure frowned to himself, dropping his equipment onto the grass.

((It's no use,)) he sighed. ((The communicator's too damaged…there's no way I can send a thought-speak signal any farther without a Z-space transmitter, and there's no way a radio signal would be any good.)) He paused. ((And all that water _probably_ wouldn't help matters.))

His stalk eyes leaned back to stare above him. Where there should have been a red-gold sky there was instead water, millions and millions of gallons of it, pushing down on the top of the dome. His main eyes scanned the interior, filled with its lush blue and red grasses, trees and artificial lake.

His mind wandered. It had been several days now since the battle with the Yeerks; several days since he had crashed in the ocean of this strange planet, Earth, without working means to contact his fellow Andalites. Assuming any of them were still alive, or had the technology to get to him.

And if they didn't, the Yeerks did. How long could he hold out for a rescue before the enemy became aware of his existence?

He pawed at the grass nervously. His tail-blade flicked.

((Well…if I'm going to get out of here, it looks like I'll have to do it myself,)) he decided.

* * *

**Author's Notes: **And "Apathymorphs: The Invasion" is finally finished. Now to ger ready for the sequel! x-( It'll probably be a bit before I actually get that story outlined and start writing—anyone want to guess who the Andalite is in the meantime? He's a canon Daria character, despite his extraterrestrial reimagining. ;-)

Thanks to everyone who's read, and if you haven't spoken up before, please take the chance to give me any last-minute comments! The more people I know are reading, the more encouragement I'll have in the face of at least five more of these stories. (Oy...)


End file.
